EXETER'S massive leaf-clearing operation is coming to an end for another year.

The weight of leaves collected this year is expected to exceed 400 tonnes — enough to fill around 300 large road-sweeping lorries.

Or, put another way, enough leaves to fill 6,500 household wheelie bins.

The weight collected is slightly down on last year and about 200 tonnes down on the year before last.

According to Mike Trim, the city's head of cleansing services, the weather is the likely culprit for the decrease in weight.

Mr Trim said: "The 600 tonnes we collected two years ago was an all-time high.

"It is difficult to say what has caused the drop but I suspect it is the high winds that we have been having which have been blowing the leaves away.

"Also, the wind dries the leaves making them that bit lighter.

"Although, when the lorries get to the weigh station, we do squeeze as much water out of them as we can before they are weighed if they have been damp when they were swept up.

"Another factor is that more people are now home composting. By the end of October, we had hired out more than 6,000 brown bins."

Some councils around the country allow the leaves to accumulate and do a sweep up only once or twice each autumn.

Exeter continuously sweeps up the leaves in a bid to keep pathways clear and thus help to prevent pedestrians from slipping.

The city sets aside an extra £10,000 for additional resources each year for the operation, which is spread over 10 weeks.

One large road sweeper is hired.

There is a city council road sweeper deployed as well as two to three sit-on sweepers and the individual road sweepers also pick up leaves.

Once weighed, the leaves are taken to the council's depot at Water Lane where they are composted.

Some of the compost is used on farms but some is used in the city's parks as well as being given away free to city gardeners.

The give-away is set to begin in the spring next year.

Exeter City Council has hired out 6,056 brown bins this year and sales of special sacks for garden waste are running at about 3,000 a month.

The garden waste scheme started in 2004.