BOSSES at Tesco have pledged to clean up their act following complaints about litter close to its Blackburn store.

Residents contacted the Lancashire Telegraph about the ‘disgusting’ mess off Hill Street, which has been blamed on ‘recent resourcing difficulties’ leading to a fall in standards.

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Local woman Stacy Hall said: “The bushes around the car park are cluttered with waste, glass, clothes and have rats scurrying around every time I walk through.

“I emailed Tesco about this as I now can’t use the walkway because of how disgusting it is.

“There is no reason why this shouldn’t be cleaned up as it is not nice to see and people do walks their dogs there.

“It is unsafe for them to do so.”

Gary Ellinger, who regularly walks his pet dog Millie on the site, also spoke out against the problem and posed for photographs highlighting the problem.

His friend Eileen, who lives close to Tesco in Burnley Road, said: “I go up there every day with the dog.

“I have been walking up there for a year or two. I’ve lived here a while but we only had the dog a few years.

“There’s always litter there but it has gotten worse recently.

“It’s dangerous because there’s glass and lots of people go to walk their dogs up there.

“There are broken bottles and whatever, so you have to watch where you are going.”

Eileen, 63, said she sometimes sees an elderly couples collecting litter in bin bags in an effort to keep the area tidy.

She said she does not think the pair are Tesco employees and carry out the work off their own back.

A Tesco spokesman said: “We’re always conscious of a commitment to being a good neighbour in Blackburn.

“We do manage to have regular litter picks across our site.

“We will make sure that we walk our contractors around the area our customer has highlighted to address those concerns.”