A DUDLEY woman is demanding a council Christmas clean up after finding a dead rat – in her granddaughter’s cot.

Outraged Julia Stevenson discovered the rodent in the two-year-old’s bed at her home in Aston Road and says her family is living with a plague which can only be solved by the removal of a pile of rubbish.

The waste, which includes garden refuse and dumped household goods, is attracting vermin but Ms Stevenson says her pleas to the council are falling on deaf ears.

She said: “It’s an absolute nightmare. When it is icy you can see rat’s footprints so you know they are there. My next door neighbours have spent thousands of pounds on their garden but their kids are scared to go out.

“All I want to see is an end to this, it is appalling. We have had to burn the cot, we shouldn’t have to put up with this. What sort of Christmas will we have?”

Dudley Council has been sending pest control officers to get rid of the vermin and Ms Stevenson was advised to block holes in her walls.

She followed the advice but unwittingly sealed a number of rats inside her home’s wall cavities and even after they die the creatures still make her life a misery.

Ms Stevenson is currently coping with the smell of a decomposing rat in the void between her bathroom and her neighbour’s kitchen.

She said: “They can’t get it out, it’s a disgusting stench. I found another one dead on the floor in our outhouse.”

She says Dudley Council has told her they will not remove the rubbish because it is not on their land.

The 43-year-old, who shares the house with her daughter and granddaughter added: “I am very angry at the response, or lack of it, from Dudley Council. They just seem to want to keep putting a sticking plaster on the problem.”

UKIP councillor Bill Etheridge has taken up the case, he said: “It appears they just want to do a bodge job rather than undertaking a permanent solution by cleaning up this eyesore path.”

Cllr Hilary Bills, Dudley cabinet member for environment and culture, said: “As a council, we have no legal powers to remove rubbish from private land but share the concerns of residents about the health and eyesore implications caused by people who dump rubbish. We would urge anyone who sees people dumping rubbish to report it to us on 0300 555 2345.”