Workers at a charity shop in Keighley are being forced to take their waste home because gangs of drug using scavengers regularly raid their bins.

Yorkshire Cat Rescue opened a store in Cavendish Street earlier this year, but since then it has regularly seen the area behind the shop strewn with litter, human waste and drug needles.

On Monday, the day the bins are collected, three separate groups struck the industrial bin.

And it is a problem other businesses on the street have experienced when they leave full bins out overnight ready for the early morning collections.

The problem is so bad that Colin Atkinson, one of the volunteers at the charity, has arranged for Bradford Council to collect the waste from his Crossroads home instead of leaving it to attract more raids.

And the charity has already received a letter from the Council warning it to stop fly tipping.

Sarah Atkinson, manager at the shop, said: “They get in the bin and chuck what they don’t want down to our back door. When we clean it up we find used needles and excrement.

“We’ve bought chains to keep the bin shut but they just cut them off. You come here in the morning and there is rubbish strewn all over.

“I know the Council can’t have someone stood here watching all night, but something needs to be done. We’ve asked if the bins could be collected later in the day, but they said that would not be possible because of traffic “Colin got here at 4am on Monday to put the rubbish out, and by 5am three groups of people had come to the bin. All that is in there is broken ornaments and things like cups with chips in them. We recycle things like clothes and shoes, so it is really worthless stuff.”

Jackie Burke, manager of the Sue Ryder shop on Cavendish Street, said the shop recently moved its bags to a walled area of the car park behind the shop, but it was still hit by similar rubbish raids.

“We’ve chained our bins shut but they just break them open. People don’t volunteer to work at a charity shop to put up with this.”