PUPILS who reduced a pensioner to tears by regularly dropping fish and chip papers in her garden will be forced to return to the scene and clean up -- as soon as the headteacher tracks down the culprits.

Margaret Molyneaux, aged 79, and her husband Ken, aged 80, have had enough of the rubbish being dumped at their home in Blindsill Road, Farnworth.

Mr Molyneaux said that pupils from nearby St James' CE School pass his house at lunchtime as a short-cut to the local chip shop and on their way back leave chip papers, cans and trays up against his garden wall and in the garden itself.

He said: "We have put up with this for years, and each year it gets worse. We haven't done anything to deserve it, we are elderly and it isn't fair that we have to remove their rubbish each day. It is causing us aggravation and my wife has been in tears about the whole thing."

Mr Molyneaux contacted the school which agreed to send a teacher to see the couple during a school lunch hour in an attempt to identify the culprits.

Headteacher Bob Atkinson said: "The hardest part is identifying who they are. Once we have done that we can administer a suitable punishment. They could be asked to go to the house to pick up litter.

"We apologise to the couple. Unfortunately sometimes pupils do act irresponsibly, but we always try to respond appropriately."