ANGRY Gwersyllt residents Sharon Grady and Helen Pritchard have had enough of rubbish excuses.

Mum-of-three Sharon and neighbour Helen, also a mum of three, are fed up with extra rubbish that the council will not dispose of. The two women have begun a petition for larger wheelie bins to combat the problem.

Sharon said: 'I have a two-year-old who goes through 10 nappies a day, seven days a week. I recycle every week but there's too much rubbish left over that the council won't take.'

As a result Sharon and Helen are plagued by mice and rats.

'With children as young as two, it's just not hygienic,' said Sharon. 'We are very angry.'

Helen added that a neighbour saw a rat run across her feet in the kitchen of her home. The infestation of rats and mice has got so bad that Sharon can't let her son Shaun play outside for fear of coming into contact with them.

Refuse collectors in the area take recycling once a week and household waste once a fortnight, leaving residents like Sharon and Helen with excess bin bags that they are unable to dispose of.

Regulations allow families of seven or more a larger wheelie bin, but for some of those who fall short of this figure, rotting food and nappies are left to fester in bin bags outside homes, causing residents serious health concerns.

Both residents of Maes-y-Coed in Gwersyllt are registered disabled and cannot drive to take the excess bin bags to the rubbish dump.

Sharon and Helen have tried various ways of getting around the problem.

Sharon asked if she could put the extra bin bags into the refuse lorry, but was told that she wasn't insured to do so. She then asked Environmental Health if she could purchase an extra bin herself and was refused. Due to council regulations they are not allowed to burn the rubbish.

At the end of their tether, the two came up with the idea of writing a petition - which already has 1,000 signatures on it. The petition campaigns for larger wheelie bins for families of four or more to prevent the bins from overflowing and causing hygiene problems.

But in a statement to the Wrexham Mail John Bradbury, Chief Environment Services Officer countered: 'Sending waste to landfill is not an option we can continue to take and bigger bins will only encourage this. It is essential that all residents under-stand that we have to recycle our waste to protect our environment.'

Helen said: 'We are not against recycling, both of us recycle all the rubbish that we can.'

And Sharon added: 'Things like nappies and aerosols can't be recycled, and that's what is left over after the recycling has been done.'

The petition is available to sign in Gwersyllt Post Office, Toymaster in the KwikSave precinct Gwersyllt, Derek's Convenience Store in Gwersyllt. Bradley Post Office, Bradley Village Hall, Bradley Stores, Rhos Robin Post Office, The Spar in Summerhill and Park Wall Garage on the Mold Road.