Neibhbours clubbed together to clear up their messy street as motorists dodged piles of rubbish strewn across the main road.

Residents in Noak Hill Road, Billericay, woke to find their street covered in rubbish.

About 50 binbags had been split open and their contents spilled across 100 yards of the road.

It is thought a group of people must have caused the chaos, as opposed to foxes, because of the extent of the mess.

Police in Basildon took a number of phone calls as motorists avoided the clutter.

As no crime had been committed, the police passed the problem on to Basildon Council.

However, residents got their own hands dirty clearing the street - before council engineers turned up to clear a path.

Betty, 72, and Edward Jacobs, 73, got out of their sickbeds, where they have been suffering with the flu, to tidy the mess outside their home.

Mrs Jacobs said: "The whole street put their rubbish bags out three days ago and the council has not been to collect them.

"We have had no notice about when the collection is going to be and nobody has been to sort this mess out.

"My husband has been out putting the rubbish back into binbags.

"A lot of our neighbours have done the same."

Basildon Council hit back at the complaints, claiming it could not have done anything more to make residents aware of changes to collection times.

A spokeswoman said: "We placed adverts in the local press and in the District Diary which is delivered to every house in Basildon.

"We also gave out leaflets saying there would be no collection between Christmas and new year.

"I cannot understand how anybody could have missed the information.

"The council was on skeleton staff. We sent out engineers, not rubbish collectors, to clear the road as we were concerned about the problems facing motorists.

"At the end of the day, those bags should never have been out."

Picture, top: Covered - motorists dodge rubbish strewn across Noak Hill Road

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.