THE Isle of Wight Council and Amey have offered 'sincere apologies' after sending out a press release stating that someone took just a coathanger and a charger to Lynnbottom Tip.

The gaffe was highlighted by the County Press after the tip user recognised his items and said he had taken an entire car full of garden waste along too.

Today, a spokesperson for the council said: "We have offered sincere apologies that the use of the picture taken by Amey site staff and used in a press release may have caused the resident discomfort, and have no reason to believe that there was not also green waste in the vehicle as claimed by the individual concerned.

"We liaised with Amey overnight to investigate the incident further, including speaking with the staff member who was on ‘Meet and Greet’ duties that morning.

"In response, Amey has said: 'Amey does not condone the action of our employee resulting from a misunderstanding of the conversation he had with the resident and has conveyed apologies to the individual concerned via the council.'"

The council said the case was 'only ever intended to be used as an example to support the important message regarding non-essential journeys to the household waste recycling centre'.

The health and safety of residents and site staff is extremely important as lock down measures are slowly released. We have had more examples of residents bringing a small number of items to the HWRC some of which could easily have been stored at home or collected at the kerbside.