RESIDENTS living on a Bury street have called for action over bins that have not been collected for nearly two months.

People living in flats in Brunswick Street say their communal bins were last collected by Bury Council in early February, causing rubbish to overflow and mount up next to them.

Pictures also show dead rats and syringes, which have been found just yards from the bins.

Stella Entwistle, who lives on the street on the outskirts of Bury town centre, said the bins were also attracting flies and maggots, creating a “hideous” stench.

Ms Entwistle, aged 52, said: “This has been going on for about two years.

“The bins are kept outside my back door, so in the summer we cannot have our windows open or back door because of the smell.

“It absolutely reeks because of all the food, beer and old milk bottles. It is a health hazard.”

While residents on the street have their own bins for general waste, all recyclable items must be put into communal bins.

These are meant to be collected every three weeks, however, residents say they have been left for as long as 12 weeks in the past.

However, a council spokesman said the reason for the bins not being collected was that they were contaminated.

He added that one reason for this was that they were being misused by people cutting through the street to access the town centre.

The spokesman continued: “One solution might be for residents to have individual recycling bins; however, there would be too many bins for such a small area.

“An ideal solution would be a bin store with access via a key code only for the residents; however, that would need to be introduced by the company which manages the flats.

“We did carry out a one-off clearance of all the bins in February, and will revisit the site.”

A spokesperson for Places for People, who own the flats, said: “We are committed to providing and maintaining places to a high standard.

"To assist local residents in the short term, our operatives have today manually removed litter from the communal recycling areas on Brunswick Street. We will now explore the issue with our council partners to find a suitable long-term solution.”