BINS have not been collected for as long as six weeks in a rat-infested road leaving residents raging.

People living in Avondale Street, Halliwell, which has “struggled” with rats,  now have a backlog of waste from their bins piling up in their back yards.

They have complained to the council which has blamed bad parking on the one-way narrow road as reasons why bins have often not been collected.

But Victoria Critchley, who lives with her two young children and an English Springer Spaniel, says she cannot keep the waste at her small terraced home.

She said: “I’ve got a son in nappies and a dog. The street struggles with rats and now we have a backlog of rubbish in the garden. I can’t put it anywhere.

“So, I rang them up and they said there’s no report or any reason why it shouldn’t be emptied. It’s not like we don’t put our bins out.

“They want us to recycle, but they don’t collect it.”

Another Avondale street resident said she complained to the council when the problem was at its worst with no collections for six weeks.

But she said she received no reassurances so she contacted her MP as well.

She said: “The bin men around here are an absolute joke, we can go for a month with a normal collection, then the month after multiple collections can be missed.

“I have lived around the area for years and this was never a problem years ago.

“Over the Christmas period I contacted the council due to our bins being missed – general and recycling – and obviously we had more due to Christmas waste, but our bins hadn’t been collected.

“I have a child and I had waste piling up due to the period building up to Christmas and they were full the day before Christmas Day.

“But no help was given and now it’s still as bad as it was before.

“My mum also lives on the street and had complained numerous times even though the council constantly state when ringing up that no one on our street has phoned up to complain or report anything.”

A Bolton Council spokesman said: “We apologise for any inconvenience caused to residents due to missed collections.

“There are a number of reasons for this – Avondale and the roads surrounding it are on a one way system and the streets are very narrow making the manoeuvring of a large vehicle extremely difficult.

“Added to this, parked cars in back streets and on street corners can make it more difficult for a bin wagon to safely travel down the road.

“We would appreciate if residents could work with us on this by parking their vehicles responsibly and keeping access roads clear – this would help us to empty bins on scheduled collection days.

“We are also looking at longer term solutions to this ongoing issue to improve the service for residents.”