What started out as a mundane story about Worthing council’s rubbish detectives turned out to be anything but rubbish for the Worthing Herald – although reporter Daniel Sanderson might not agree.

The intrepid journalist was sent out with the ‘detectives’ as they trawled fly-tipping hot spots – and Daniel got so involved with the story that he ended up elbow-deep in rotting rubbish.

The team discovered 35 bin bags of rubbish dumped in an alleyway and Daniel was told the whole neighbouring street was being prosecuted.

But when he spoke to residents they told him they knew exactly who was dumping the rubbish – and they had called the council to let them know.

Herald editor Jon Buss knew just what to do to get to the bottom of the story, and sent Daniel back to the alley with a bin liner and a pair of marigolds, telling him to find out who the rubbish belonged to.

Daniel said: “It was putrid, absolutely revolting. I went through old milk cartons, beer cans, baked bean tins – I was covered in brown goo and stank for the rest of the day.

“But I managed to find five letters all with the same name and address on and went back to the council.

“When I was training they told us the lengths we would have to go through to get a story, but I never imagined I would have to do this!”