A RATS explosion has seen Blackburn and Darwen receive more than 3,000 complaints about the vermin in just one year.

The shock figures, which equate to around eight complaints a day, show that problems with vermin have risen by more than 400 per cent in the last ten years.

And one pest controller said there could be hundreds more cases each year that aren't reported to the council.

But council bosses said the increase in complaints was because more people were aware of how to report a rat infestation and because litter problems were encouraging the vermin onto the streets.

A Freedom of Information request by the Lancashire Telegraph revealed that in Blackburn and Darwen last year there were 2,956 complaints about rats received by environmental health officers, more than four times the number in 1998 (655).

The figure has increased every year except for 2006.

In Ribble Valley last year there were 213 reports of rats. Rossendale and Pendle Councils both said that they did not have exact numbers of calls received but that "several hundred" reports were made last year.

Peter Hunt, the council's director of regeneration and environment, said that workmen forgetting to replace the caps covering drains underneath roadside rainwater drains - particularly in Darwen Street and near Blackburn market - had allowed rats to escape from sewers in recent years. But he said most had now been replaced.

He said people were leaving more rubbish outside their homes each year, and said litter from takeaways was bringing rats that had lived underground onto the street.

Earlier this month a mini-market was closed down by environmental health inspectors in Blackburn after they found a 'serious infestation of rats'.

The inspectors said the infestation, at Bastwell Foods, Plane Street, Blackburn, was the worst they had ever come across.

But he added: "People are finding it much easier to access the council services, and they are happy with the service, so more are getting reported. and I wouldn't want anyone to think there is a massive increase in the rat population - I don't believe there is."

Tory Coun Colin Rigby, leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: "An increase in rats and other vermin was a major concern of mine when it came to reverting back to weekly bin collections.

"You can never eliminate it but you can minimise the conditions that rats thrive in and regular weekly bin collections must help."

But Labour's shadow regeneration boss Andy Kay said it was "nonsense" to blame bin collection rotas.

Andy Gilroy, who runs Exit Pest in Accrington, said that problems of litter and flytipping had caused a huge increase in the rat population in the past few years.

Mr Gilroy, who has been a qualified pest controller for eight years, said: "I have hundreds of calls every year and they are on the increase.

"Many private pest controllers will not report rat infestations to the council - so there are definitely potentially hundreds more each year that aren't reported."

Mr Gilroy said he had been called to infestations across East Lancashire.

He added: "In Blackburn there is a particular problem because rats love water and there are miles and miles of sewers and culverted rivers under the streets of the town.

"If you see one rat, there will be 100 close by. If you leave a half-eaten burger around in the street, a rat will come and take it.

"Rats can bite through bricks and even steel, it doesn't take long for them to get into loft spaces and inhabit a whole terraced street."

Brown rats, which are the common rat in this area, can carry hundreds of diseases and infections including Weil's disease, Tuberculosis and salmonella.

Government figures suggest there are around 60 million rats in the country. They breed up to nine times a year, producing between six and 24 rats each time.

Dickie Felton, a spokesman for the Keep Britain Tidy campaign, said: "In this country there is a direct link between food dumped on streets and an increase in rats. The fact of the matter is that rats feed off our rubbish. Unfortunately fast food litter remains a big problem nationwide and we all have a part to play in tackling this major issue."