Tonnes of cannabis waste mysteriously dumped on a man's driveway was not been removed by the council for two weeks.

On June 26 Daniel Pope's daughter returned from school to their Deepdene Road property in Loughton to find around fifty black bags left just beyond the garden gate.

When the HSBC worker arrived, he discovered the strongly smelling soil inside had been used to grow cannabis.

Immediately Mr Pope reported the dump to Epping Forest District Council, expecting a swift response and for the Class B fly-tip to be removed.

It was not until Monday, July 9 however, that the 100 litre sacks were removed.

At no point did the 42 year-old receive a response.

He said: "This is just not acceptable.

"This is waste from a marijuana grow and I would think that the council and the esteemed council members would have been more interceded in getting this sorted.

"I was not been able to open my gates or access my property from that end for a number of days.

"I am sure that this would not have been allowed to go on had it been a gate belonging to someone at the council."

Mr Pope regularly cleans the area outside his garden, but was physically unable to shift such a large pile of rubbish.

He added: "I am out their every Saturday morning with a power-washer. I just couldn't move it myself.

"It was more than 5,000 litres of garden waste.

"My child and her friends used to play in that area and I used to park my car there.

"I had to park my car on the street, which was not the end of the world, but think of what would have happened if some poor child consumed the stuff and it got out that several members of the council were aware of the matter but did nothing."

Epping Forest District Council was contacted for comment.