THE latest target of Exmouth Tidy Group s war on litter was the banks lining the railway along Marine Way last weekend.

THE latest target of Exmouth Tidy Group's war on litter was the banks lining the railway along Marine Way last weekend.

Town councillor and Tidy Group member John Humphries, Richard Tugwell, Chairman Chris Greenway, Mary Hosegood and Alan Sutherland spent Saturday morning tidying up around the railway line in preparation for the influx of visitors this summer.

The junk ranged from newspapers, drinks cans, bottles, cigarette butts and refuse that had just been fly-tipped by lazy householders.

However despite collecting at least five sacks of rubbish dumped by litter louts, they were unable to clean up around the railway tracks - because of health and safety reasons.

Chris said: "It was just a quick but dirty clean up. We would have liked to have picked up around the railway line as it is very messy there but we were unable to due access restrictions."

Norma Southwood of the Tidy Group added: "It's a bit of a bone of contention.

"We have had talks with First Great Western.

"Unfortunately only Rail Track is allowed to access the line."

She added that they didn't have a fixed rota of areas in the town to tidy: "We clean different areas of the town as the need arises

"We all live in Exmouth and look for areas that we think are out of control and we clean it up - last time it was Littleham.

"If people cleaned up after them we wouldn't have to do it. We want the town to be clean and tidy for residents and visitors. It's messy work but it has to be done.