BED mattresses, a smashed toilet, car radio speakers and even a pool table were cleaned from the streets of Dovercourt and Parkeston in as part of a big spring clean.

Councillors, residents, scouts and community payback workers spent Saturday cutting back overgrown weeds and cleaning up litter from footpaths and residential roads.

The aim was to give the town and village, known as the “gateway to Europe” a spruce-up ahead of the first cruise ship visit of the year.

More than 70 binbags were filled, as well as three mini-skips on top of the large dumped items, which included wooden furniture and a settee.

On top of this, Parkeston Parish Council and residents collected 20 binbags of rubbish and filled three mini-skips of rubbish collected from the village’s private alleyways.