A MAJOR trunk road is becoming a 'mountain of litter', with some stretches of the A66 not being cleared since October, a councillor is claiming.

Everything from a pink Wendy House door to a car bumper can be spotted strewn along the verges of the dual carriageway.

Councillor Matthew Vickers, of Stockton Borough Council, said Stockton Council and Highways England, who are responsible for keeping the road clean, have failed to tackle parts of the highway since October.

Now, one Stockton councillor has had enough of the wait, and is calling for urgent action.

Conservative group leader Cllr Vickers said: “The state of the A66 is an embarrassment to Stockton.

“Anyone passing by or arriving in our town is greeted with verges full of litter dropped by an irresponsible minority of people.

“I have had a barrage of complaints from residents who are quite rightly furious.”

He said the delay was due to wrangling between Highways England and Stockton Council, who carries out litter picks on the agency's behalf.

Cllr Vickers said: “As the bureaucracy piles up, so does the litter."

He said the council's litter pickers had been told they were not trained to the standards required for highway workers, and that they now had to wait to be properly trained the road closed for maintenance – which will not happen until April.

"All the while, the mess continues to mount," he said.

Cllr Mike Smith, Stockton council’s cabinet member for environment and transport, said: “It’s a crying shame that a minority of people continue to throw litter out of their vehicles and onto our road verges and leave the authorities to clear up after them.

“For safety reasons, we are only allowed access to carry out litter picking on the verges during times when the road is closed for maintenance work.

“If Highways England was to start closing the road solely for litter picking purposes, they could be closing it every other week, which would of course cause major traffic disruption."

He said due to changes in Highways England management, staff need extra safety training before the scheduled road closure takes place.