A FAMILY is worried that children could become ill as a result of piles of rubbish left in Curtis Street.

Bags of waste and loose rubbish have been building up for three years in land outside the flats and houses, including prescription medication.

Marian Burton, 81, of the town centre, has phoned the council about the problem but has not been able to get the rubbish moved.

“It was somebody’s garden but nobody ever goes on it except to dump rubbish there and it is beginning to smell,” she said.

“The council don’t want to know because it’s not council land.

“I’m 80 years old, I can’t go out to do it. There were some pills out there. The children go up and down here on their way to school and these things could be poisonous for all I know. These things were at the side of the road.

“The fact is if any kid had picked one up they could have died, whose fault would that have been?”

Marian phoned the council last year but was told private land was not their responsibility and she is not any closer to getting anything done.

“I am banging my head against the wall now,” she said.

“With the warm weather it is beginning to smell. In the summer it stinks. It’s just a rubbish tip.”

Marian’s grandaughter, Beverley Carry, of the Railway Village, said she doesn’t like letting her daughter play near the alley.

“It is an eyesore and it is dangerous and smelly,” she said. “I am a carer so my daughter knows not to go near discarded medication but other children might not.”

Beverley said that foxes in the area tear open the rubbish bags and cause more mess.

A Swindon Council spokesman said: “If waste accumulates on private land it is ultimately the responsibility of the land owner to deal with it.

“However, there have been community clean-ups in the area which have been very successful in clearing away the majority of the waste. We are happy to support such projects and will pick up any waste if it is left in a place where we can easily collect it.”