Garden gnomes culled at waste tip

Gnomes are culled at the site every few months

Workers at a waste disposal site have been ordered to get rid of garden gnomes, dumped by owners who think they are no longer fashionable.

A cull takes place every few months at the Lifford Lane tip in Kings Norton, Birmingham, so that the gnome colony does not get out of hand.

The end product is then used for building rubble.

Alf Hickey of Tyseley Waste Disposal which runs the tip said the cull happens because a lot are brought in.

He said: "We have to cull them every few months because we get so many - we have to throw the old stuff away and keep the new stuff."

Pottery hens, ducks, chickens, dogs and frogs, greet visitors at the entrance to the tip and are particularly popular with children whose parents use the site.

Mr Hickey added: "The public are the ones who have brought it about because they have brought the stuff in and they contribute to it."