A MAJOR route into St Albans is being blighted by litter and rubbish on the verges and central reservation according to a fed-up local resident.

Sanjay Kulkarni, who lives in Watford Road, Chiswell Green, said the problem extended along the A405 from the Noke roundabout to the M1 roundabout which was the first sight of the city for many visitors.

He went on: “It is on all sides and in the middle and there is litter and supermarket bags everywhere. There is a civic waste disposal site on the other side of the M1 and things are thrown off the lorries heading there.

“It is never cleaned regularly and nothing has been done at all for the past three to five weeks.”

Sanjay said he complained regularly about the state of the roadside but he did not feel anyone was particularly bothered about it. He also pointed out that the grass was only cut once a year and other A roads were much better kept.

He added: “I live on Watford Road and for me it’s a real eyesore. I am actually ashamed of it.”

Richard Shwe, St Albans council’s head of community services, said: “We are aware of the litter on a stretch of the A405 road from the Thistle Noke Hotel to the M1 motorway.

“This area is difficult to access safely to remove litter without closing the road. Where we can access parts of the area safely, we have carried out litter picking, for example in the lay-bys, central reservation area and parts of footpaths.” Mr Shwe said that this had last taken place in February and said the council had also applied to Herts County Council, which is responsible for highways, for permission to temporarily close the road so that litter could be removed in difficult-to-access areas.

He added: “We are awaiting confirmation of a date to do this. We plan to carry out this work at a quiet time of the week in order to avoid any inconvenience to local residents and road users.”