Maldon District Council has appealed for help in tracking down the person who left a mattress outside a High Street charity shop.

A council spokesperson took to Twitter to post a picture of the item dumped outside The Salvation Army charity shop, saying: "Remember - Leaving your items outside a closed charity shop is fly tipping.

"We're investigating this incident in Maldon including reviewing nearby CCTV."

If you have any information about where the mattress came from, you can report it to the council using the link here using reference number: 21/00571/CPFTR.

Mattresses cannot be accepted by charity shops and most have notices on the doors and windows asking people not to leave donations outside while the shops are shut.

This has become an issue for a number of the town's charity stores during the pandemic, with sacks of clothes and other goods becoming exposed to the weather and in some cases strewn across the street.