A father-of-three failed to get action when he found a syringe outside his home.

Paul Jenkins was alarmed that children might pick up the syringe and contacted his council's environmental health department.

But, even after three urgent telephone calls, he got no response and decided to dispose of the needle himself, and kicked it into a nearby drain.

West Oxfordshire District Council has apologised, and told him that contacting the council's environmental health department was the correct thing to do.

Mr Jenkins, 49, from Stanton Harcourt Road, Witney, said: "There are a lot of young children around here. I'm a dad, and the first thing you think when you see a needle is - they're going to pick it up, and you don't know where it's been or what they might catch."

The day after finding the needle, Mr Jenkins only managed to speak to someone on his third attempt at phoning the council.

He said: "I eventually got through to a man, and told him it was on council property and I didn't want to touch it.

"He said: 'What do you want me to do about it?'"

The council said it was busy on the day Mr Jenkins phoned, but he had been right to contact environmental services.

Spokesman Carys Davies said: "We can only apologise for this incident. We were short-staffed on that day and we were extremely busy, so the call wasn't handled in the normal manner,"

"We would like to thank the gentleman for bringing this matter to our attention, and we're sorry it wasn't dealt with in the normal way."