Italian mayor forced to clean streets after town runs out of manual workers

'We can't do anything - we are blocked by bureaucracy,' says Mayor Pinuccio Chelo

The town square in Zerfaliu (Google Street View)

An Italian mayor has been sweeping the streets of his town after a bureaucratic blunder left the municipality with no manual workers to do the job.

Although the town has €150,000 (£130,000) available to spend on projects for the unemployed, the vagaries of red tape prevented them from hiring new cleaning staff.

The final remaining worker in the central Sardinian town of Zerfaliu retired six months ago and nobody has been hired to replace them.

All the exact reasons for the impasse are unclear, Mayor Pinuccio Chelois said it was the result of a senior employee going on sick leave - which he suggested had automatically triggered a temporary recruitment freeze.

"We can't do anything - we are blocked by bureaucracy," he told La Stampa on Thursday.

With the town market due to open that day in Zerfaliu, which has a population of just over 1,000 people, Mr Chelois opted to stand in.

While the mayor swept the central square, he was joined on his new job by a town councillor - armed with a hose - and the deputy mayor's father, who took responsiblity for the sewers.

"We had no other option", said Councillor Sandro Murtas. "The people expect solid responses from us, not bureaucratic bungling,."