Filthy streets prompt petition

She said: “My road is one of the main shopping streets in the town, and there is nowhere to store waste, so that we have never been given black or green bins and have to put our rubbish into plastic bags.

“In this street these are collected every Thursday morning after 7am, and every year we get a letter from the council threatening to fine anyone who puts their waste out earlier.

“But many peoples’ lives, due to their working hours, do not fit easily into this timetable - for instance some are nurses or in other trades involving night shifts or the like and so they have no choice.

“This means that a lot of the time the gulls have ripped open sacks looking for food and their contents are scattered across road and pavements, creating a hazard for motorists and pedestrians and a sure turn-off for any visitors who happen to arrive early in Bexhill.”

Ann said that with other streets similarly affected, it meant a team of street sweepers having to daily clean up the mess, when provision of plastic bins or a place where gulls could not reach rubbish sacks could prevent the filth from occurring in the first place.

She said: “Rother has said there’s nothing that can be done about the situation, but my belief is that the council should be addressing this issue far more robustly - hence my e-petition which I hope many local people will support.”

To become a signatory, log on to: epetition.eastsussex.public-i.tv/epetition_core/community/petition/1929 and leave a full name and address. Signatures from outside the area are not admissible.

Ann suggests providing black wheelie bins for residents, or larger receptacles in the road - not favoured by traders because of the loss of parking likely to be caused - or leaving a caged collection truck at a strategic point for residents’ use.

She said: “I know that this may not be of much help to disabled people, but then they already have difficulties with the present system. It would at least help to minimise interference by gulls, which cannot be culled because they are now a protected species.”

Rother head of amenities Kim Ross said: “We’re very proud of Rother’s record of being one of the cleanest places to live in the UK.

“Inevitably, as with all seaside towns, there will be some problems with seagulls and litter in the very early hours of the morning. We insist on our contractor making this the first cleaning job of every day and long before most people are up, the streets are clean of most rubbish created by the birds.

“The vast majority of residents and visitors do not get to see it and the town is very clean, as it should be, for the start of the day.

“We feel we have a good solution to this issue, however, should we receive a petition, we will, of course, look into any alternative action we might take and see how we can address any concerns brought to us.”