A Shropshire man has hit out at council officials after he reported a needle and syringe left in a town park and it was not removed for three days.

Now Shropshire Council bosses have sent an internal memo to staff telling them they must act as soon as possible to clear up discarded items such as needles when they are reported by members of the public.

Dave Riley, from Underdale, in Shrewsbury, discovered the discarded items in the town’s Abbey Gardens and rang Shropshire Council at about 1.15pm on Friday.

He said he was not asked for the location of the items while on the phone and did not get a call back and on Sunday at 6.30pm, he spotted that the needle and syringe were still there.

Mr Riley said as the gardens were near a school, he hoped the council would have been more active.

He said he was phoned at about 9am on Monday for a location.

“They apologised for the delay, as this scenario should normally be dealt with more promptly,” he said.

“They also confirmed this will not happen again.

“I don’t believe discarded needles are a big problem for the town but when collection goes wrong it does need highlighting.”

Simon Alton, a spokesman for Shropshire Council, said: “Reports of dangerous litter like this are treated as a matter of urgency by Shropshire Council.

“Procedures are in place to make sure reports by members of the public are dealt with as soon as possible, but in this case the report was not followed up by a member of staff with an immediate phone call, as is the normal practice.

“An urgent reminder has been sent to the relevant teams reminding them of this policy.”

Councillor Miles Kenny, who represents the area, said he was disappointed to hear the council had not acted quickly.

He said: “I expect better from the council. A few weeks ago there was a similar problem very close by on a Saturday morning when we were doing a litter pick and the council came very quickly.”

By Rebecca Lawrence