RESIDENTS have reached the end of their tether over “extraordinary” levels of dumped rubbish near a river which has not been cleared for over three years.

The Enfield Lock Conservation Group have been asking the council to clean up a public footpath in Innova Park, Enfield Lock, which they say has been steadily getting worse over the last three years.

Martin Shepherd, chairman of the conservation group, said that litter has come from a number of sources – particularly contractors during the building of the flats on the site, and schoolchildren who use the path.

Mr Shepherd, 57, who has lived on Government Row in Enfield Lock since 1997, said: “It is an extraordinary amount of rubbish.

“Littering has always been quite bad, but this is the worst I have ever seen around here.

“We try and do our best to clean up, but we are a small group.

“Anyway, I don’t see why we should – we pay our council taxes. We were speaking to the council and were getting somewhere, but now they have just gone silent. We’ve had enough.”

Mr Shepherd said Enfield Lock ward councillor Nneka Keazor had visited the site and agreed it was “disgusting”, and that volunteers from the council’s Operation Payback scheme had been promised to visit.

But despite this, nothing has been done to get rid of the piles of rubbish strewn along the footpath.

The council say the rubbish is dumped on the land being developed by housing constructors Circle, and so it is their responsibility.

Andrew Basten, a spokesman for Enfield Council said: “I have spoken with the Payback team and they have instructed me that they had undertaken a litter pick of the path that leads from Velocity Way along the pond.

“As it is private land I feel that Circle 33 should keep this area clean.

“We have been working with Circle 33 and they have informed the council that they have hired a new grounds maintenance team who will be cleaning the grounds on a regular basis.”

Circle Housing told the Enfield Independent they looking into the matter raised by the conservation group.

They are trying to work out whether it is them or the council who are in control of the land in question.

Simon Mundell, a spokesman for Circle Housing, said: “We are speaking to the local authority to determine who is responsible for this area of land in Innova Park before the necessary action can be taken.”