Rubbish at an Ipswich block of flats was not cleared up for eight weeks, a resident claims.

The flats in St Matthew's Street had piles of rubbish congregating in the bottom of their chute for several weeks, although it has since been removed.

Managers have now pledged to carry out weekly checks of the bin area to ensure the problem doesn't recur - while waste collectors have blamed access problems due to "illegally parked cars".

Dad Neil Swager, who lives in the flats, managed by Block Management UK Ltd, said: "For over eight weeks no rubbish men came along. We have a chute to throw the rubbish down, which became overfilled."

He commented: "It has attracted rats, mice, flies, I am just thankful it isn't summer or the smell would be so much worse than what it is now.

"I live here with my two children and it's horrible to have to wake up to that. It isn't the first time and I doubt it will be the last."

Mr Swager said: "The rubbish has since been collected. However the floor wasn't cleaned of the rubbish `juice', and I nearly slipped down the concrete stairs."

A spokesperson for Block Management UK Ltd said: "We understand the concerns of the residents over the removal of waste from the site.

"We should point out that the removal of waste from the site is carried out by Biffa Waste Management. We believe that the on-site accumulation of rubbish was due to a number of missed collections.

"We do arrange for cleaners to attend the property weekly to keep the communal areas clean.

"Once we were made aware of an issue with rubbish at the site, the affected area was cleared within a matter of days. We also contacted Biffa to request that this not happen again.

"In future our mobile caretaker will be visiting the property weekly to check the bin area, and we are also in the process of installing an additional CCTV camera to monitor the area in question."

A spokesperson for Biffa commented: “We apologise for the inconvenience to the residents and can confirm the waste has now been collected.

"We had struggled to gain access to the site due to illegally parked cars, however this has now been resolved and collections will resume as normal.”