A DANGEROUS stack of rubbish was left strewn across a busy road - and caused it to close for hours.

Stephanie Newcombe, 28, narrowly avoided crashing her car when driving along Beeches Road, near Hullbridge.

She says she ran over some of the waste before coming across the mountainous heap.

Stacks of rubbish was left strewn across the road, with Stephanie making the discovery at about 10.20pm on Monday.

She said: “I put my full beams on and luckily saw it all.

“It is awful, I have contacted the council.

“I was the one who reported it and had to wait with it all until the police arrived.

“I was told Highways would take a couple of hours to get there to clear it, the stuff was flytipped and could have caused a serious accident.

“But come yesterday morning it was all still there - and the road was still shut.”

Rochford District Council workers were on site clearing the blockage yesterday morning and closed Watery Road.

A post on the council’s social media page said: “The council hopes to re-open the road as soon as possible.

“We advise residents to avoid this area and will update via social media accordingly.”

The stretch of road re-opened by noon.

Stephanie, of Bosworth Close, Hockley, added: “It happens a lot down there, from rubbish, cars to lorry tyres.”

Michael Hoy, Rochford councillor for Hullbridge, said the dumping of rubbish in Beeches Road had happened before and called for action to address the problem.

He said: “It is probably the second time in a year that road has been closed in that manner.

“Last year, around January time, there were items dumped there.

“The problem is it doesn’t seem to be cleared up very quickly.

“About a third of the traffic coming into Hullbridge goes down Watery Lane so as soon as it is closed it causes big traffic problems.

“I have been in contact with bus companies who highlighted how bad it was.

“There seems to be a problem in the system - last time it was sewage contractors who cleared it up after they got fed up of waiting.

“It is a major road.”

He added: “This was an awful lot of rubbish, I hear they tend to drive along in a flat bed lorry and just push it all off as they go.

“There are issues with over-sized lorries using the road when there is a weight limit.

“Perhaps a camera at either end would help to capture footage of the people doing this and serve as a deterrent.”