A STREET where bins have to be left to fester in front of homes has been likened to the ‘Third World’.

Residents in Gordon Street, Darwen, have to leave their dustbins by their front doors because binmen refuse to collect them from the unadopted back alley.

And as the weather turned hot and sticky this week, the bins have led to nasty smells of rotten rubbish floating into people’s homes.

One homeowner said she regularly spent time working in Africa and said: “I don’t live in such conditions with rubbish on the front doorstep.

“Not only this, but I cannot get a tenant, let alone house buyer, because of this problem.

“Is it right that we should still be forced to live with our garbage and other people’s rubbish on our doorsteps?

“For years now the residents of Gordon Street are made to face the rubbish every single time they walk through the door.

“In the height of the summer months, the opportunity to have the door open to let a breeze through the house is gone.

“All we get is the smell of garbage.

“The residents each pay more than £1,000 a year in council tax.

“With that amount of money, can the council not surface the alleyway behind, making it easier for the rubbish collectors to drive down there.

“For many years the residents had to push the wheely bins to the end, in fact most prefered to do this than face the rubbish every day on the front doorstep.”

Sudell councillor Roy Davies said: “I could not agree more.

“I have complained about this many times in the past.

“The binmen refuse to go down the back alley because they say in winter it can become unsafe.

“The problem is the back alley is unadopted as when the houses were built the alley was not handed over to the council.

“And they have said it is up to the people living in the street to get it into a state where it can get adopted.

“But as far as I know every house on the terraced side of the street is rented and the people who own the houses won’t put any money together to get it sorted.”