BUSINESS owners who have complained about rats, rubbish and fly-tipping near their premises have welcomed council a clean-up – and council bosses are calling for people to keep it clean.

Traders and residents in the Parkhills Road area say Back Parkhills Road South has been a blackspot for “all sorts” of dumping, including bedding, a fridge and general waste.

And they claim rats are a frequent sight in the area, forcing some businesses to shell out on expensive measures to keep vermin out of their premises, while Bury Council failed to act.

After the Bury Times enquired, the council carried out a full clean up and said it does its best to keep the borough’s streets tidy with the stretched resources at its disposal.

A spokesman said: “Unfortunately, and disgracefully, there are some areas of Bury where people persist in throwing their waste into back alleys instead of disposing of it properly and legally.

“Back Parkhills Road South is one of those locations. We went down there this morning and cleared up most of the waste, and returned 15 minutes later to pick up the rest. When we got back, a further 15 bags of rubbish had been dumped in the alley.

“This is the scale of what we are dealing with. The waste included a fridge – yes, we picked that up, and the extra 15 bags of rubbish, but what’s this doing here in the first place?

“When we’re working with reduced budgets, with increasing demand for services from the most vulnerable people in our society, we need everyone to play their part in keeping our neighbourhoods clean.

"At all times we will go through the bags to try and identify the offenders to get enough evidence to prosecute."

Filomena Fry, owns Tucci Hair Co, in Manchester Road, which backs on to Back Parkhills Road South.

She claims she has been unable to rent out the two flats she owns above her salon, as potential tenants are put off by the “disgusting mess” at the back of the properties.

The salon owner has given the clean-up a cautious welcome but says it was long overdue.

She said: “It shouldn’t have come to this, you just want it to stay like this, but will it?

“I have been here 13 or 14 years and I used to be that one of the council guys coming round and picking up the litter, and you never see anyone coming round like that any more.

Ms Fry says the street now “look great” but is calling on the council to “keep the situation monitored”.

She added: “I don’t want it to happen again. It looks great

Julie Day, manager at McColls convenience store, says the company has had to spend an “extortionate amount” vermin-proofing its premises.

She too has welcomed the council taking action this week, but added: “It should just be a regular occurrence, a weekly thing, to stop vermin more than anything – but there’s nothing here now.

“It looks absolutely fine at the moment, but let’s see how long it lasts, this has been an ongoing situation for years, not months.”

And she said that there was no excuse for the local authority not keeping the street clean of litter.

“It’s just basic hygiene, “ she said. “And that is what has not been happening, it’s cost us money to proof our store due to the amount of waste that is out there. It’s been detrimental to us in that respect, having to proof the store to make sure you don’t get any vermin in.”

“Hopefully it will be cleaned on a regular basis and people will put their rubbish in the bins rather than throwing it on the floor.”