CLEANING up after the free-roaming Forest sheep is becoming an increasing burden on local Council Tax payers – with the costs set to soar in the coming year.

In figures seen by the Review, the Forest Council spent £619 over the 2013-2014 financial year – but the council spent more than £1,000 between April 1 and July 24 this year.

In an e-mail from the council to Gloucestershire county councillor Richard Leppington (UKIP, Blakeney and Bream), the authority's environmental team revealed: "In addition, there are 12 more cleans which are yet to be billed for August."

"The costs for this year have increased considerably as, since June 1, we have been asked to carry out much more cleansing as the street wardens are monitoring the area more."

Cllr Leppington, said: "The pavements around the villages, in the centre of the Forest particularly, are becoming terrible – but the costs of cleaning up after them is rising very fast.

"The costs have doubled this year, and I fear that they are going to rise again, considerably.

"People are getting very unhappy about the situation – having to deal with the mess on a daily basis, then having to foot the bill for the clean up."

A Yorkley villager, who did not wish to be named, said: "The mess around the villages locally has been horrendous.?The sheep are filthy, and the stench around them is appalling, especially in hot weather.

"The fact is, I, and others around here, have seen men with sheepdogs driving the sheep into the villages at night.

"I saw this around midnight last weekend, and the mess in the morning was all over the roads and pavements.

"I have not confronted these men and wonder why they are driving the sheep into the villages at all."

She added: "If they are going to run sheep like this, then they need to pay for them to be cleaned up after. Or they can pay for the fences, gates and sheep grids that will keep the sheep out altogether.

"We haven't been able to have a hall carpet for three years now, as we had to replace it so often because the family walk the droppings in on their feet, and on the dog's paws. You can't clean that mess out of a carpet, it just stinks the house out."

West Dean parish council has already complained to the district council over the problems highlighting problems in Pillowell, Yorkley,?Whitecroft and Bream, said Cllr Leppington.

•A meeting discussing sheep movement around the Forest due to boar interference will be among the major topics discussed with various organisations today (Wednesday).

Secretary of the Commoners Association, Mick Holder said the committee is involved in meetings with the police, Forestry Commission, West Dean Parish Council and the district council about the boar 'muscling' into areas where sheep commonly graze.

He said: "I can't go into too much detail about what we will discuss but among the issues are areas of the sheep and how boar interference is causing the sheep to move along. We will also discuss lottery funding and the conservation programme set up in the Forest."

The outcome of the meeting will be further discussed this Saturday (September 6) at the Littledean Community Centre at 7pm.

Mr Holder added: "We also want to hear from people who have experienced problems with the boar."