Penryn’s town clerk and deputy mayor took on the role of refuse collectors on Friday, after a fly-tipper left rubbish outside the town hall.

When clerk Michelle Davey and councillor Gillian Grant arrived at the town hall arrived at the hall on Friday morning, one day before the first wedding of the year was due to take place, they were confronted with bin bags and soggy cardboard piled up under one of the town’s Christmas trees.

Miss Davey said: “This happens far too often, but we’ve got a wedding on Saturday, and the bride’s been setting up.”

It would have been awful if it had been tomorrow morning, if the bride had driven up with her bridesmaids to be confronted with a bag of rubbish.”

It shouldn’t be too difficult to catch the culprit, however, as when the rubbish was removed it was found to contain an old item of post with a name and address.

Miss Davey said: “We have reported them to Cornwall Council and written a very strong letter.

“Often we can’t find out who’s doing this and they get away with it. This isn’t even someone who lives near the town hall, it’s someone who lives further down the street.”