An Italian mayor has been sweeping the streets of the town he runs, after bureaucracy and a labour dispute left the municipality without any workers. 

Pinuccio Chelois picked up a broom and got cleaning after an automatically-triggered recruitment freeze meant he was unable to hire any public workers to clean the streets of Zerfaliu, a commune in Sardinia - despite the town having €150,000 in the bank to spend on projects for the unemployed. 

The town's last public worker retired six months ago, and with another worker out on extended sick leave, Zerfaliu has been unable to hire any more. 

"We're blocked by bureaucracy and by some workers who aren't doing their jobs," mayor Chelois told La Stampa. "Our citizens have the right to live in a clean town." 

The mayor was joined by some other prominent citizens in his impromptu cleanup, with a councillor washing streets down with a hose and the deputy mayor's father tasked with cleaning the town's street gutters. 

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