A LEADER of the litter group Tidy Tavi has spoken out against the scourge of ‘black sack’ waste being strewn around the streets of Tavistock – after he spent a morning clearing up mess in Bank Square.

Steve Hispey and fellow Tidy Tavi member and borough councillor Jeff Moody had to pick up all the rubbish on Wednesday, pictured, from bags which had apparently been ripped into by animals or seagulls.

‘It was a whole mixture,’ he added. ‘There was bottles in there that should have been in the recycling, mixed in with food waste. It makes for a hell of a mess.’

He added that the tears in the bags appeared to have been made by seagulls.Steve said that he had also noticed an increase in rubbish in streets around the town – and is appealing to people to only leaave their rubbish out on the correct day, as he believes this is adding to the problem.

‘[Tavistock street cleaners] Chris and Andy can’t be expected to deal with this. I don’t want to be a grumpy old man but it would be nice if others could put in a bit of effort to clear this up.’