A WOMAN says she has been forced to move out of her home after having to store binbags in her living room for the past year.
Nova Desoer was left with nowhere to store rubbish in between fortnightly collections from her Accrington home - with her only other option being to take it to the tip.
Nova, who has lived in the Maudsley Street house for just over a year with her kitten, Mercy, and works three part-time jobs, says there is no private area to store her rubbish - and has received two unpaid £100 fines from the council for putting her binbags out before collection day.
But cat owner Nova, 38, says she can no longer stand being there due to the “awful smell” of binbags full of rubbish and cat litter.
She said: “I can have up to ten bags with rubbish and cat litter which attract maggots and flies and as it’s humid I have to triple bag them but the council won’t give me enough orange bags.
“They’ve told me I have to keep the bags in my house and only said I could have a wheelie bin a couple of days ago, but that I’d have to keep that in my house too.
“I can’t eat a meal there - you can’t eat among bin bags so I have to eat takeaways. I feel like I’m crawling and the bags are leaking everywhere.
“I’m having to stay at my partner’s house as I can’t bear to be at mine as it smells awful, like food that’s gone off.”
Nova says the problem has arisen because her landlord does not own the land at the back of her house, but she does not blame him.
She said: “He’s a great landlord who’s done all he can for me in a short time.”
She added: “The council told me to take the bags to the tip but I shouldn’t have to do that so I take my rubbish to my mum’s in Huncoat.
“It’s terrible I have to leave my home because of this.”
Coun Paul Cox, Hyndburn council’s cabinet member for environmental services, said: “If the landlord can’t provide suitable litter storage they should seriously consider other ways of helping the tenant dispose of refuse, rather than leaving it to them to take bags to the tip.
"A landlord renting out a property should at least make sure it meets basic requirements, including somewhere to put refuse.
“This isn’t a problem we’ve encountered before and I’m sure there are a wide choice of properties for rent in the borough where this isn’t a problem.”
He added that bins left on streets could cause litter.
Her landlord John Harris said: “It’s true that property has no outside spaces of it own but the council, in allowing that house to be partitioned and turned in to two separate properties, should have considered an issue of that sort.
“Nova Desoer has informed me that she is moving out of that house and I can’t say I blame her at all.”
