An army of litter-pickers has cleared away ten tonnes of rubbish left in Peel Park by Mela festival-goers - at a cost of thousands of pounds.

Festival organisers took two-and-a-half days to get rid of the sea of litter - managing to complete the huge task half a day ahead of schedule.

An estimated 130,000 people descended on the park over the weekend to join in Europe's largest Asian festival. And its co-director Robin Morley said dealing with the refuse was part of dealing with its success.

As the massive clean-up operation began early on Monday, organisers were forced to admit there had been an "unforseeable" delivery problem with bins that failed to arrive until the Sunday, making the litter situation worse.

Mr Morley said lessons had been learned and they would be looking at other ways of collecting rubbish more effectively in time for next year. He said: "Every year the Mela gets more popular, bringing in dense crowds. We need to look at how we can collect rubbish more effectively in those conditions.

"But a three-day clear up after an event like this is very typical - it's no worse than we expected."

Last year more than 200 people from the area signed a petition saying Peel Park was not a suitable location for the Mela but, despite their complaints, Bradford Council agreed it could be held there this year and again in 2004.

Mr Morley said he felt it was the most suitable space for an event of the Mela's size and looked forward to it staying there for years to come.

He added: "We're very aware of the environmental impact the Mela has locally. To help, we keep in regular dialogue with the parks and leisure departments of the council, community forums, local ward councillors and track any phone calls or letters we get from people - it's an important part of our planning process for future events. Hopefully people feel they can talk to us and we'll listen."

Peel Park manager Graeme Atkins said: "It was important to us and everyone who uses the park that the clean-up was carried out as quickly as possible.

"We've been monitoring the whole operation and they've really stuck to the task. We're satisfied with what they've done and we'll keep up the good work from here."