OUTRAGED residents have slammed young people for littering a popular green space with bottles, takeaway wrappers and drink cans.

Every year The Green, Woodford Green High Road, becomes a haven for sun worshippers who congregate to enjoy the long summer evenings.

And it seems the hot dry weather mixed with schools returning from the half term break has left the cricket pitch needing more than a little loving attention.

Martin Herman, 40, of Stanley Road, Woodford Green, called the Guardian after he drove past the "carnage" on his way to work.

The father-of-two said: "I think it's kids from Trinity and Woodbridge High. They should send some teachers down there as there was probably more than six large sackfulls of debris strewn over the pitch.

"You can see all the patches where kids have been sitting and it's almost as if they are being spiteful by deliberately leaving all the rubbish there."

Woodford Green Cricket Club vice chairman Colin Masters said: "I just don't think these youngsters appreciate what they have got there.

"It's soul destroying as we had a visiting team come down from Leicester and they all remarked how picturesque a green it was to have in the middle of London.

"We can't play with it covered with bottles like that and if we have a 1pm start for a match then the captain has to go down there by 11.30am to start picking rubbish off the pitch."

After appeals from The Guardian last year, the City of London Corporation, which owns the land, agreed to place three bins at the site - but this seems to have had little effect.

Trinity Catholic High School Headmaster Dr Paul Doherty said he was aware of the problem.

He added: "We have sent members of staff down to move them on but really they have every right to be there as it's part of Epping Forest.

"We have made appeals that if they go down there then to take little with them and I think most of our pupils are very well behaved but this is a problem with society generally.

"But if it doesn't get any better than we are prepared to send people down there to help pick up litter."