TAVISTOCK Canal was slammed as a stagnant tip this week by Monksmead residents.

They say they are fed up with rafts of smelly, floating rubbish lying close to their homes.

Susan and Ian Barry, who live by the canal, say a combination of low water levels, flourishing weed and rubbish is creating an eyesore and a health hazard in an area where children frequently play.

Mrs Barry said: 'There are half-eaten burgers in containers — I've even seen whole loaves of bread caught up in the weeds. It's not just kids throwing rubbish away, it's adults too.

'It's so bad the ducks can't even swim up here on some days. It's so stagnant, it's absolutely filthy.'

And she said the smell and flies caused by the clogged canal were so bad she and her husband were forced to come in from their garden on several occasions this summer.

'You expect gnats by the water, but not this smell,' she said.

Mr Barry said that accumulating rubbish and food debris in the canal also attracted rats, which had become increasingly bold in the area.

'Children play in the canal in the summer, but I wouldn't go in that water.

'It looks like a rubbish tip and people are treating it like a tip. We get a lot of tourists walking by here and you hear them commenting how filthy it is,' he said.

'Thousands were spent on the towpath and the bridge but nobody enjoys walking along it. Hundreds of kids use it twice a day, yet there's not a litter bin anywhere.'

Mr Barry said South West Water responded quickly to his complaints during the summer, but said their efforts to clear the weed were 'half-hearted' and had not worked.

Resident Pat Bryant, who uses the canal towpath every day, said the canal was 'a disgrace'.

'It just gets blocked up, it's horrible, absolutely revolting,' she said.

Liz Gilchrist, secretary of Monksmead Residents' Association, agreed the canal was 'absolutely filthy'.

'People say it's because of the schoolchildren, but during the summer holidays when they weren't at school it got steadily worse.

'We get all sorts chucked in there, traffic cones, bits of corrugated iron — at one point we even had a bit of a cement mixer. It's been going on for months — nobody will do anything about it.'

Stephen Swain, spokesman for South West Water, denied residents' claims that weed clearance had been inadequate and said the problem would be reduced if people did not throw rubbish into the canal.

Mr Swain said: 'We cut the weed a few weeks ago, and we have no plans to do it again this year.

'At the moment, Morwellham Power Station is going through its annual maintenance programme. We expect it to be back in action in about two weeks, by which time we will put water back into the canal for the power station, which should clear some of the weed and loose stuff away.'

Mr Swain said weed growth was seasonal and it would 'die off' once the winter weather set in.

'There's also now a lot more rainfall which we would expect to have some impact on canal levels,' he added.

Alison Stoneham, spokesperson for West Devon Borough Council, said: 'We do litter-pick along there and we have provided poop-scoop bins. If people really want bins down there we will provide them, but we are concerned they will end up in the canal as well.'

Mrs Stoneham said as a result of residents' concerns this week, a meeting of all interested parties would be convened 'as quickly as possible' to try and resolve the matter.

Dave Banks, of the borough's environmental health department said the canal area at Monksmead is regularly checked, but if reports of increased rodent activity were received, they would be acted upon.

Graham Stoate, Tavistock College's assistant vice principal, said litter control was an important issue for the 2,000-pupil school and students were constantly made aware of the need to keep college grounds clean and tidy.

He said: 'Obviously, the canal path is not our property and we cannot take responsibility for it.

'We are in a difficult legal situation as far as teachers supervising students off the premises is concerned.'

He said he was not aware of any particular problem in the canal towpath area and no complaints had been made to the college, but now the matter had been brought to his attention, further investigations would be made.