Pair push the snowball into town. Photograph: Ben Elijah

When the first flakes fell earlier this week, there were reports of police officers merrily taking part in snowball fights with the kind of feral children they would ordinarily be trying to give an asbo.

But four days into the UK's worst snowfall for 18 years, it would seem the patience of some officers has run out. In Northampton today, the police were accused of "petty officiousness" after breaking up a "harmless" giant snowball that two young men had spent all morning building.

Ben Elijah, a 24-year-old account manager, took pictures charting the progress of the gigantic snowball as it rolled through Northampton city centre right into the shovels of two special police constables.

The first photos show the pair struggling to push the ball, which measured 6ft (1.8 metres) in diameter according to Elijah, past River Island and up the high street.

But before long their grubby creation captures the attention of two passing police officers in fluorescent jackets, who draw out their shovels and proceed to hack through the snow and move it out of the road.

Police take to the snowball with a shovel. Photograph: Ben Elijah

"It was one of those harmless moments when everyone there all pointed, smiled and had a laugh with total strangers. The police stamped on it for no good reason," Elijah told the Guardian.

"It just seemed like petty officiousness, as though his uniform gave him an opportunity to have a power trip."

But a spokeswoman for Northamptonshire police told the Guardian that the officers were not "killjoys" but were simply trying to keep the road safe.

She said: "These were two special constables who were unable to get to their day jobs, so decided to do their bit for the community.

"When they saw the snowball, it had already been rolled through the city centre precinct and had been pushed into the middle of the road causing an obstruction, around a blind corner. There wasn't anyone with it at the time, and they decided that the sensible thing was to remove it, which they did."