Residents plead for help over rats invasion (From This Is Lancashire)

Residents plead for help over rats invasion

1:07pm Friday 17th August 2007 in

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A STREET has been branded a paradise for rats by residents who claim fortnightly bin collections have made the problem worse.

Residents in Gordon Street, Darwen, said that they have found rats the size of cats' in their homes and gardens,.

And they claim calls to Blackburn with Darwen Council's environmental health department have been fruitless.

The council has promised to investigate immediatley and admitted that there had been an ongoing problem with rats in the area.

Full-time mum Emma Angel, 24, said: "We've always had rats in the five years I've been here, but until recently there's been nothing to be concerned about. Since the fortnightly bin collection though, the problem has got worse and worse and worse. I only have one bin and I have hundreds of nappies to fit in it.

"I've rung the council on a number of occasions and all they say is that it will be five days before anyone can even ring me back let alone deal with the situation."

Emma has sent her four-year-old son Daniel and seven-month-old daughter Ellie to their grandmother's small two-bedroom home in Avondale Road, Darwen, indefinitely and refuses to take bath in her home because she has heard rats under the floorboards.

She said: "It's disgusting, horrible. My little girl is only seven-months old and I have had to spend three nights away from her because I won't have her living like this. I have post-natal depression as well and the situation isn't helping.

"Rats have been under my bed eating clothes and bedding and childrens toys. The thought that they are around the children's things and by the baby's bottle repulses me. I have to bleach everything everyday."

Neighbour Robert Davidson, 43, said: "It makes me feel absolutely filthy and my wife has now started talking about moving.

"It's like a party for rats at night around here. It's a rats' paradise because of all the fly-tipping and the fact our bins don't get collected for a fortnight.

"I've been reporting these rats, sometimes the size of cats, to the council for two years and nothing has been done. Every time they come to look they tell me there isn't a rat problem."

Coun Salim Lorgat, executive member for housing and neighbourhood services, said a pest control officer would be sent straight away.

He said: "There have been on-going problems of rats in the area that have required treatment from time to time and a senior environmental health officer is to visit with the pest control officer to find out if there is an underlying problem that requires addressing.

"It is unlikely the increase of rat infestations in the area is due to fortnightly bin collections."

From September the council is introducing a phased return to weekly bin collections across the borough.