AFTER more than two weeks and searching in "the wrong place" a mattress dumped at the Marine Lake has finally been removed.

Following complaints from Rhyl Surfer's Against Sewage volunteer organiser Keith Jones, workers from Welsh Water cleared fly-tipped rubbish from the site.

While a second mattress, dumped outside the boundary fence to the lake was removed by Denbighshire County Council the day after Mr Jones' complaints, Welsh Water didn't clear the rubbish from their site until Monday, February 4.

Mr Jones said: "I was flabbergasted to see that someone had dumped their unwanted mattresses in the area.

“We often find shopping trolleys and the like in the lake itself, but nothing so brazen as the dumping of two double mattresses, or a fire extinguisher that appeared on Christmas Day.”

"To give the council credit, once we let them know, invariably the fly-tipping items are removed within a few hours. They told me that the second item was inaccessible as it was on the other side of a high metal security fence on Welsh Water land, but that the water company had been informed.

“More than two weeks later it was still there, so I tweeted their Twitter account with a photo of the area. To be fair, they replied within the hour and I had two phone calls that day promising swift action. Over a week later, nothing had been done so it was time for another tweet which eventually led to a response from Welsh Water that they had been looking for it in the “wrong place”."

"Although it does seem a bit daft that it should take so long to get some action, my anger is completely reserved for the mindless folk who think it is a good idea to dump stuff in such a way."

The Marine Lake is in the middle of its annual drain, repair and tidy up period.

Welsh Water spokesperson said:

“We recently received reports of fly-tipping at one of our sites in Rhyl, and have now cleared the rubbish from the site.

"Our sites are there for a reason, to provide clean drinking water for our customers, and remove, treat and return wastewater safely to the environment. To dispose of waste which risks the safety of our operations, our colleagues, and the environment is irresponsible and something that won’t be tolerated.

"We would urge anyone who sees rubbish being dumped at any of our sites to contact the police immediately.”

The Rhyl SAS group currently have about 400 people taking part in their regular beach cleans, and will work the Marine Lake Users Forum on Saturday, February 9 morning at 10am for a litter pick at that site.