RUBBISH bags not picked up for five days attracted rats close to houses in Malvern, claims a resident - but the council says the dumped sacks were a case of fly-tipping.

Mario Eastham says that bin men did not pick up the bags during their regular round on Wednesday, October 2, and the mess was not cleared up until Tuesday this week.

But Malvern Hills District Council says its policy is not to pick up bags which are left alongside wheelie bins, and that the bin bags left by Mr Eastham's home were effectively 'fly tipping' instead.

Mr Eastham, who lives in Everley Close, off Pickersleigh Road, said: "I called the council on Thursday about the bags on the grass outside my house, and several times after, but they didn't pick them up till Tuesday.

"My next-door neighbour's daughter saw rats in amongst them. It's not good enough and they shouldn't have taken so long to clear them up."

Alex Bill, the council's environmental services manager, said: “We received a complaint from a resident in Eversley Close on Thursday, October 3, that black bags left by the side of wheeled bins had not been collected.

"We advised the resident we do not collect side waste and any rubbish not put in a wheeled bin would be left. The resident then informed us the black bags did not belong to their property.

“This was then reported as a fly-tip and passed to our Community and Environmental Protection Team to investigate to see if evidence could be found to take enforcement action against those responsible.

"The team visited the site on October 4 and on one further occasion, and both times were unable to find the bags which were not in the place they had been reported to be.

“In normal circumstances, once a fly-tip investigation has taken place, an instruction to clear the remaining waste will be made and this will be carried out as soon as possible.

“We obviously apologise for any inconvenience but the vast majority of our residents have put a huge amount of effort into reducing their waste and we need to continue to support that.

"If waste is left by the side of wheeled bins then crews will not collect it and we will investigate and take appropriate action against those responsible.

“If anyone is struggling to get all their waste in their bin then there is lots of advice and information available to help people recycle more and reduce what they throw away at letswasteless.com.”