AN ANGRY shop owner who has cleaned up litter and dog mess from outside her Blackburn store for more than a decade is calling on council bosses to take action.

Saida Khan said she is 'embarrassed' by the amount rubbish left outside Intack Post Office on a daily basis and claimed the problem is now impacting the day to day running of her business.

The grandma-of-three, who has run the Accrington Road Post Office for more than 11 years, is urging Blackburn with Darwen Council to install a bin outside the shop for the third time.

But council bosses said the problem was down to an 'irresponsible minority' not the lack of a bin.

Mrs Khan said: "I get to my shop every morning and find there's rubbish and dog foul everywhere and no one from the council ever cleans it up.

"I asked the council in 2011 and 2012 for bin after it just became too much to deal with.

"The street cleaners don't come past my shop because there isn't a bin to empty so it get left to me to sort out.

"It's embarrassing and it's having a direct effect on my business.

"I get customers coming in and complaining about the litter and it's not nice for me or my colleagues.

"I believe people are dropping litter on the floor because there's no bin."

The mum-of-three, who lives in Granville Road, Blackburn said after finding beer cans and mouldy food outside her door 'enough was enough'.

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The 62-year-old said: "It has got to the point where I am sick to death of cleaning it up every day.

"I want to make a point to the council that I have been doing this for more than 10 years and I'm frustrated that it's me that has to suffer from it."

Dropping litter is an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and a fixed penalty of £75 can be enforced for dropping it.

Cllr Jim Smith, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s executive member for environment, said: "This problem is very much with certain thoughtless customers and not the presence of a litter bin outside this shop.

"It is an irresponsible minority who make this mess and don’t seem to care about their borough.

"There are bins in the area nearby.

"The council doesn’t have any funding available for new litter bin installations at the moment, and a number of shops have spoken to us and provided their own litter bins, which we have agreed to empty.

"A number of shopkeepers are also undertaking litter clearance to support our street cleaning, which is completely in the spirit of the council’s Your Call campaign, and shows that many people have a real pride and love of the borough and want to help us keep it clean."