Man douses rats in oil and grabs rodents using rubber gloves as city street infested

A man with a month of no bin collections says he is forced to take on rats - armed with rubber gloves and oil.

David Richardson, 64, said he had been left living beside a rodent infestation caused by Glasgow City Council failing to collect bins since the middle of last month.

David Richardson next to the overflowing bins | SWNS

He has even had to deal with rats head on by putting oil on the beasts after finding them trapped in bin holes they created.

Mr Richardson and his neighbours have now become "depressed" by the sight of the piles of rubbish and are demanding urgent action to be taken.

"I have seen multiple big rats, about a foot long as well,” Mr Richardson said. “There is an infestation.

A brown rat | NationalWorld

"There was a large one that got stuck in a hole in the bin. I had to cover it in oil and shove it through while wearing a rubber glove just to get it out because I didn't want to kill it.

"That shouldn't be down to me to deal with, it isn't my job. It could be dangerous if it bites anyone.

"There are also rat holes appearing everyday, it is so depressing to look at. I don't want to wake up and see that.

"Me and a lot of the other residents are very unhappy about this. We want urgent action taken."

Mr Richardson has now resorted to keeping his rubbish inside and claims other neighbours are doing the same as they do not want to add to the mountains of garbage outside.

Instead he has been taking small bags of waste to discard in public bins to try and reduce the amount in his area.

The residents now have real safety concerns if the rubbish is not taken away soon.

The council have apologised for the inconvenience and said the delay was due to the festive period.

Mr Richardson said: "Someone could throw a cigarette out the back and it would ignite the whole place. There is so much cardboard and we don't know what else.

"I don't want to go out to the bin area at all anymore. I now keep my rubbish inside and take little bags out to public bins when I can.

"I know my neighbours are doing the same thing because we can't add anymore rubbish outside. It doesn't feel safe, it has become absolutely ridiculous.

"I don't know how widespread this problem is. I'm assuming the council has got a big backlog, but I can't imagine where it is worse than here.

"I have lived all over Europe and I have never seen rubbish left like this before."

A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: "We are aware residents on Regent Moray Street are waiting on bin collections following the recent festive holidays.

"We are very sorry for any inconvenience this has caused, but we are hopeful that collections in this area will be fully back to schedule very shortly.

"The four public holidays over Christmas and New Year do have an impact on the delivery of waste services at this time of year.

"The approach we have taken this year is to focus on clearing shared bin courts and bin stores for flatted properties as quickly as possible to try and minimise the overall impact of the loss of service as much as we can."