BLACKPOOL's very own Great Uncle Bulgaria still faces eviction after failing to pay £12,000 in rubbish clearing fines imposed by council environmental health officials.

Dennis Bostock, 62, has spent the last 26 years rifling through rubbish bags in the resort searching for items to fill his home on Bloomfield Road.

Despite a High Court injunction prohibiting him from storing junk on his premises, Mr Bostock has amassed a vast array of clutter from clothing cast-offs to abandoned furniture.

The result is that huge piles of rotting refuse have built-up both inside and outside the property attracting hundreds of complaints from angry neighbours.

That forced council workers to visit Mr Bostock on several occasions and clear the garbage nine times, costing taxpayers around £600 a session. But, on February 14, Blackpool Borough Council environmental services officers won a county court order allowing them to sell his decaying abode unless he pays mounting clearing costs within 28 days.

So, while Tomsk, Orinoco and the rest of the clan are safe in their burrow on Wimbledon Common, Mr Bostock could be facing life on the streets.

Head of Environmental Services at Blackpool Borough Council, Kevin Garrity, says the decision to pursue the order was not made lightly.

And follows a long process of years of appeals from council, various court orders against the collections and a psychiatric assessment showing that Mr Bostock did not suffer from any mental disorder.

Mr Garrity said: "We've taken a long time to actually get to this stage with Mr Bostock.

"The items stored in his house have been taken from bins throughout the Blackpool area and we have a duty to deal with this effectively once and for all.

"It's entirely possible that Mr Bostock's collection is a breeding ground for all manner of vermin and this in itself presents local residents with an unacceptable living situation.

"We are not unreasonable or setting out to make him homeless and we have yet to go to the high court to inform them that, once again, Mr Bostock is in breach of their injunction prohibiting his collecting activities before we progress any further.

"But we are fully prepared to take drastic action unless the situation is resolved because there have been many warnings issued, both officially and unofficially, in an effort to get him to clean up his act.

"Yet he has wilfully allowed clearing costs and fines to mount-up without payment and we believe he is in a position to change this."

Mr Bostock still has until March 14 to pay his outstanding fines and save his home.

But a council spokesman said: "As yet there has been no move by Mr Bostock to pay his outstanding fines.

"But - despite having no legal requirement to do so - we do plan to make contact with him before the 28 days is up and attempt to press the seriousness of the situation upon him before further action is taken."