'It's like living in a horror movie' - Preston community overrun with rats
Residents claim the council is refusing to help
Residents on Deepdale Road are complaining about an infestation of rats in recent weeks.
It comes after we reported a huge increase in the number of vermin across the UK as we're warned we're becoming a hotspot for rats, world wide.
Videos we've seen show dozens of rats in the alleyway between Deepdale Road and Goldfinch Street, close to Deepdale stadium.
We spoke to several residents who are calling for urgent action from the council, before rats enter homes or cause serious health issues, especially in children who use the alley to play in.
Saj Member, who lives on the street says:
"There is a serious health, safety and environmental Rat problem in Deepdale Preston in particular the alley way between Deepdale Road and Goldfinch Street.
"We as a neighbourhood community have approached the city council but they have not responded satisfactorily.
"Preston City council are claiming the the Rat infestation in the alley is not their responsibility and is the responsibility of the residence residing in that community to deal with by using a private contractor to resolve the rat problem which will be costly.
"Taking into consideration that we are all working class and struggling financially due to cost of living this is not fair or justified to put the accountability of a decent standard of environmental health on the on the shoulders of local residence to foot the bill as a community taking into consideration the sharp rise in the cost of living we as a community cannot afford private vermin removal services.
"All residence pay council tax, so there must be something financially from the budget that can be put forward to pay for and resolve the alley way rat problem. "
A Preston City Council spokesperson said:
“Rodents are a destructive and upsetting issue for residents and we work hard to ensure that any reported concerns are dealt with quickly and humanely to try and keep some control over the rodent population.
“Issues like overflowing bins and fly tipping can unfortunately encourage rodents and we ask residents to be mindful of their waste and to avoid fly tipping, which is a time consuming and expensive issue for the council to deal with, tying up resources that could be spent elsewhere.
“We’d ask any residents who are concerned about rodents or fly tipping to report these issues through the forms on our website.”