Ruislip residents awoke with a start as a lorry load of rubbish was dumped in their road.

Just five minutes before Halloween last week, a tipper truck was driven into Hale End Close, Ruislip, and the driver dumped rubbish to block the width of the road.

Resident Chris Christofis alerted the police and Hillingdon Council’s 24-hour emergency line, and a council clean up team had collected the rubbish by 2am on Thursday October 31.

Mr Christofis said: “There was tons of rubbish. It was blocking the road and stretched for about 20 metres. A few neighbours came out to see what was happening because first of all we heard a very loud bang.

“We thought there had been a car crash because it sounded that loud. I couldn’t believe that someone would do that in a quiet road and just drive off. All of the residents are really grateful for the council’s quick action because it would have blocked around 20 cars in and people would have been unable to get to work.”

Mr Christofis said fly-tipping is becoming more of a worry for people living in the area, after prices were introduced at the West London Waste rubbish dump in Victoria Road, South Ruislip in October last year.

“I know there has been fly-tipping going on in other areas around Ruislip, but it’s not the sort of thing you expect to happen late at night in a quiet street.”

A council spokesman said officers are still looking into the fly-tipping incident last week to find out who was responsible.

“If it was domestic waste we would look through it and the team would also be looking at CCTV in the area. The person who has reported fly tipping might have seen who was responsible. If there have been a number of reports we can write to residents. This acts as a warning to whoever is doing it, but also as an appeal to residents who might have seen something.

“If it is on private land but there is a lot of waste, that can attract rats and mice – we would let the land owner know it is their responsibility to clear it up and inform environmental health.”

Is fly-tipping in the Ruislip and Eastcote areas getting worse? Post your comments below.