A WOMAN has been issued with a court order telling her to keep her garden tidy after 20 bags of rubbish were dumped outside her back door.

Blackburn magistrates heard that Hayley Wignall had already been served with an abatement notice by Blackburn with Darwen Council after a previous incident.

And prosecutor Alan Fairhurst told the court that the council believed more vigorous measures were needed to protect other people living in the Sandwich Close area.

But speaking after the case, Wignall branded the Anti Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) a "nonsense".

Wignall, of Sandwich Close, Blackburn, was convicted in her absence of contravening the abatement order and the case was adjourned to give her chance to object to the ASBO application.

She did not attend the subsequent hearing and was fined £150 and ordered to pay £100 costs in her absence.

She was also made subject to the ASBO, which prohibits her from "accumulating household rubbish in her house or garden to the detriment of her neighbours or the environment."

Mr Fairhurst said Wignall had been served with an abatement notice in May after an accumulation of rubbish in her back garden.

A further complaint in July revealed more than 20 bags of rubbish stacked up against the wall.

"This is a matter of extreme irritation to her neighbours and the Environmental Health Department, especially in summer," Mr Fairhurst told the court.

Wignall, 27, was also fined in 2004 for failing to put rubbish in a wheelie bin at her previous address in Johnston Street, Blackburn.

After the latest court case, she said she could not go to court because she was ill.

She added: "I think the whole thing is stupid a nonsense.

"It was a one-off and there were loads of bags left in from the previous tenant.

"I feel angry. It is ridiculous to get an ASBO for piling up rubbish. Everyone has rubbish in their garden.

"The back garden is now clean and has been for weeks."