AN ANGRY vicar has issued a plea for help after fly tippers dumped a huge haul of waste on his church yard.

St Mary Magdelene Chuch in Tilehurst has become a waste disposal hotspot and has seen a fridge freezer, parts of a cupboard and baby furniture unloaded onto its grounds.

Reverend Adam Carlill revealed the church is now faced with a big bill to clear up the rubbish, which the church cannot afford.

"There are potentially three options. Either the council pay for it, we pay for it, or we leave it.

"I think at the moment we are going to have to live with it because we don't have the funds to clear it up

"Either we leave it or very elderly people are going to have to remove it by hand.

"This is going to have a very serious impact on peoples lives.

"I am very annoyed by it and the people who do it need to think about their actions.

"We don't have money to put aside for this.

"We also don't want to encourage more fly-tipping by clearing it away so leaving it is the only option.

"In all my time here I have never had anything like this before and I have been a vicar for 27 years."

Nearby resident Leanne Darling said people have been using her driveway to dump waste onto the church yard. She said the latest incident happened on July 8.

Mrs Darling, of Rodway Road, added: "The amount of fly tipping at the minute is out of control.

"It looks to be parts of a cupboard but mostly baby furniture/equipment (stair gates, small mattress, children's drawing area) and a fridge freezer.

"In order for it to have been tipped where it is the van/lorry would have had to have reversed into our drive.

"As it is actually dumped on the churches land I'm told they would be responsible for getting it cleared up but being right next to my front fence it's not nice to look at each day.

"The poor vicar has spent hours clearing the bushes and trees from along the fence line for this to happen."

Despite the vicar's pleas, Reading Borough Council (RBC) said it will not pay for the rubbish to be taken away.

A council spokesman added: "It would be the church who have to deal with fly-tipping if the rubbish has been dumped on their land."

"If it was on public land then the council would be responsible for it."