Council urges clean streets after woman bitten by rat

Summarised from BBC Lancashire's report · Updated 12 Oct, 15:02 · Archive

A woman was bitten by a rat on a Blackburn street; council leader blames flytipping for attracting rodents.

A woman was reportedly bitten several times on her ankle by a rat on Abraham Street in Blackburn town centre, prompting the council to urge residents to help keep the streets clean. Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council Phil Riley said the borough had a 'huge amount' of flytipping and 'clearly that attracts rats'. He described the incident as 'an awful experience' for the victim.

A recent council forum revealed that flytipping had increased despite more waste being collected and teams of volunteer litter pickers. The council issued 93 flytipping penalties last year, amounting to fines of more than £32,000. Riley said the money spent on cleaning was money the council could spend on 'much more worthwhile things like looking after kids'. The executive member for environment and communities, councillor Jim Casey, said the situation had 'gotten out of hand'. The council has agreed to spend an additional half a million pounds on cleaning and will deploy extra flytipping teams, back alley teams, more mobile CCTV and static cameras.

Read the report

• Keep-streets-clean plea after report of rat attackLeader of Blackburn with Darwen Council says the borough has a "huge amount" of flytipping.BBC Lancashire · 12 Oct, 14:40

In this story: Blackburn with Darwen Council · Phil Riley · Abraham Street · Blackburn · Jim Casey

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