A CAMPAIGNING Swindon pensioner was left speechless after a pornographic catalogue landed on his doormat.

A full colour catalogue of marital aids, videos and magaziness was posted to Frank Avenell home in Beckhampton Street and he does not know how or by whom.

The A3 sized catalogue was posted second-class from a distributor in an Amsterdam district.

Mr Avenell, 81, said: "This thing landed on my doormat for no particular reason because I certainly didn't order it and definitely will not be ordering anything from it.

"When I opened the envelope it came as a complete surprise to me because I don't subscribe to this kind of material.

"I'm not a prude or anything, but there are limits to taste and decency.

"What would have happened if young children had got their hands on this kind of material? It must be some sort of offence to issue this stuff through the post.

"I'm ex-directory so I don't know how these people got hold of my address."

Mr Avenell informed the police and handed the catalogue in to officers at Swindon's central police station yesterday afternoon.

Swindon Council's public protection group leader, Robert Taylour, said it must have been distressing for Mr Avenell to receive such material.

He added that the Safer Swindon Shop in Havelock Street could advise people on what to do if they experienced such a problem.

The shop can be reached on Swindon 525387 or 525114.

Mr Avenell is well known in Swindon for campaigning for the rights of the town's 28,795 pensioners and in particular pressurising Swindon Council to continue the concessionary fare scheme.

This year his group, Fairness for Pensioners, launched a campaign to keep the council tax rise down, saying that the people worst off would be hit hardest by the 15.5 per cent rise.

The pressure group sent out scores of petitions to residents' associations and community groups urging them to back the campaign. A prolific letter writer to the Evening Advertiser, one of Mr Avenell's first campaigns was in 1985 when he appealed to magistrates to call time on late night drinking in the town centre.

A decade later he forced the council to service the Town Hall clock after complaining regularly that it did not keep the correct time and often chimed incorrectly.

And in 1997 the former railwayman launched a letter-writing campaign in a bid to renew funeral benefits scrapped by his union, the AEEU, and in the same year attacked the council for covering up the town hall's foundation stone with a wheelchair ramp.