OLD sofas, shopping trolleys and handfuls of syringes have been hauled out of Bury's Pyramid Park during a big clean-up.

Fed-up council bosses are now putting up a fence to stop drivers showing up with vanloads of garbage to throw in the water.

Mr Martin Hall, head of client services, said the council had received a number of complaints about the state of the lake.

"We're having a lot of problems with fly-tipping and people doing house clearances, so we've decided to have a really thorough clear-out," he said.

"We will also be putting a fence across the eastern end of the lake when we've finished to stop vehicles driving down there, although access will still be available for pedestrians and those in wheelchairs."

The clearing-up work was carried out last week by Drexeda, who filled two-and-a-half skiploads of rubbish.

"You name it, it was in there," said contractor Mr Dave Fish.

"We took two loads of shopping trolleys to the scrap yard. The lads were also quite concerned about the number of hypodermic needles that they found."

The clean-up work will continue at the site for another week.

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