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A lack of bins and issues with gulls and rats getting into bags have left some Merseyside streets looking "like a bomb's gone off", residents have said.

More than 14,000 homes in Sefton rely on a weekly waste sack collection, due to a lack of space for wheelie bins.

Bootle resident John Lewis said leaving out bags had led rotten food and dirty nappies being strewn across his road.

Sefton Council said only putting bags out on the day of collection "would stop hygiene issues".

Mr Lewis, who lives on Thornton Road, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he was "sick of this every week".

"Seagulls have a feast and leave the street in a mess that is never cleaned up.

"We have had dirty nappies that have been in the street for two weeks now - there has to be another way to deal with waste."

He said the homes needed "wheelie bins", adding: "Some houses do not have outside space for bins, but there has to be a solution, [as] surely it is a health hazard?"

Fellow resident Clare Hutchinson said her street was the same.

"I don't know why we can't have [wheelie] bins like Liverpool," she said.

"I get woken every Friday because of the noise [from collection] and then the road looks like a bomb's gone off."

A spokesman for Sefton Council said Thornton Road had been "serviced on time and all waste present to our crews was collected correctly".

He said the council wanted to "take this opportunity to remind residents of their rubbish responsibilities, which includes disposing of waste correctly and presenting any waste sacks out on their set collection day.

"This would stop any hygiene issues."

He added that residents in Bootle, Litherland, Waterloo and Seaforth who did not have space for a wheelie bin could request a storage bin for their waste.