A pensioner who regularly visits Windmill Hill City Farm says the nearby White House Lane in Bedminster is in such a bad state that it is becoming a health hazard.

Elizabeth Smith goes to the farm every week from her house in Ashton to feed four cats.

But she says that lorry tyres, car batteries, cement bags and overgrown bushes and trees are making White House Lane a no-go area, unsafe for pedestrians.

She has even found wire stretched across the pavements, which she says poses the threat of injury to people walking by.

Mrs Smith, who is 72, has spoken to the council dozens of times about the problem over the last four years, but claims her concerns have been ignored.

She said: "There are big lorry tyres everywhere – in The Malago river, on the pavements and grass verges and in the car park outside the St Catherine's trading estate.

"The other weekend, someone stretched a piece of wire across the pavement and tied it to stakes. It could have been lethal to someone walking past.

"People dump rubbish there as well, and trees overhang the pavement and force pedestrians into the road.

"It has gone too far here. I have been complaining to the city council about the general state of affairs there since 2004, but it has just got worse and worse.

"I have trimmed the trees on White House Lane and taken a broom down to sweep the precinct myself, but the council says it isn't their problem.

"I have been hitting my head against a wall all this time."

A council spokeswoman said the clean and green initiative had been set up to help tackle fly-tipping and overgrown vegetation, and was in operation in the area around The Malago.