TRADE waste is being dumped in public litter bins in Swanage sparking protest from local residents.

A number of traders are believed to be ditching waste produced by their businesses.

Council staff are being sent out early in the morning in an attempt to catch the culprits who are filling bins as fast as contractors are emptying them.

At the height of the season binmen are removing an average of eight tonnes of rubbish over a weekend.

But during Swanage's carnival weekend the district council's contractors removed an incredible 14 tonnes of rubbish.

Roger Garwood, Purbeck district council's environmental services manager, said: "The litter bins are designed to cope with the kind of small things people need to throw away when they are out for the day - sweet papers and ice-cream wrappers and the like."

He is appealing for people to act responsibly and only use the litter bins in the proper way.

He said: "Informally we have approached many traders in the past and asked them not to dump their trade rubbish in the litter bins.

"We have had staff out early in the morning to try to catch them."

He added: "It is a problem also with people who spend the day at a beach hut, fill a sack with all the rubbish they generate during that time - and then dump it in the bins.

"It really isn't what the litter bins are meant for, they should take that amount of rubbish to a proper refuse disposal site or indeed take it home."