A dustcart was "ambushed" while making its morning rounds by a father-of-two who was sick of making fruitless complaints about his grass verge being wrecked.

Stephen Stone decided to take direct action because binmen were constantly tearing up his verge as they drove down a narrow Didcot cul-de-sac.

So when he saw a dustcart once again go on to his land he blocked the 13-tonne vehicle in with his Rover 620 car.

Mr Stone, 36, a lorry driver for Tesco, said his problems began last summer when South Oxfordshire District Council's previous refuse contractors began making deep ruts in the verge alongside the narrow road next to his property.

The verge was repaired and re-seeded but the problem returned last month when new contractors S Grundon took over.

Mr Stone said repeated pleas to the council did not result in any action.

So, when workers from Grundon continued to drive on the verge, he finally lost his cool and blocked the dustcart in.

For more than an hour yesterday, Grundon workers Frank Rumsey and Gareth Owen had to sit and wait in the cab of their vehicle as it was blocked in Fairacres Road. Mr Rumsey said an overgrown hedge on the opposite side of the road forced him to drive on to the verge.

The showdown was only resolved after a kerbside meeting between Mr Stone, Grundon's operations manager Phillip Stopp and Matthew Rowland-Jones from South Oxfordshire District Council's public amenities department.

Gina Coupar, head of the district council's public amenities department, said: "The matter has now been resolved.

"The council wrote to South Oxfordshire Housing Association before Christmas to get the neighbour to cut the hedge and Grundon's has now agreed to re-turf and reinstate the damaged verge."