A COUNCIL clean-up operation left a Bridport woman’s new car chipped and dirty.

Angry Camilla Ditaovitch says workmen digging weeds from outside her home plastered her Peugeot in grit and mud.

She said: “Two men turned up and started digging up the raised pavement outside my home opposite the church in Bothenhamp-ton.

“I was in but they didn’t bother to knock on my door to ask me to move the car and they had not put up any notices warning people what they were going to do.

“My car was caked in asphalt on one side and the paintwork was chipped. I only got it in May and I was so angry.

“It comes to something when you wake up to find someone has damaged your property just because they could not be bothered to tell you what they were going to do. “I rang the council but got put through to four different departments.

A spokesman for Dorset County Council apologised for the mess this week.

She said: “It was our bridge maintenance guys clearing weeds and using a disc cutter which could have created some mess.

“The site supervisor has now visited the lady and apologised and I understand she is happy with that.”

The clean-up was ordered after Bothenhampton parish council chairman and local county councillor Karl Wallace complained about the amount of weeds growing in the pavements there.

He recently rolled up his sleeves to remove some of them and condemned the county council’s decision to save money by not carrying out ‘non safety-related grass cutting and work to landscaped areas’.

He said: “I think it is a false economy by leaving the weeds to grow. They will damage the roads. For example I found buddleia, which would grow to a large size in time.

“I worry that the county council is trying to walk away from its responsibility and try to offload it on to the parish and town councils.”