WORRIED Queensbury residents say a rat problem on their street has reached a “biblical” scale.

People living in and around Moor Close Farm Mews have spoken of their horror at the plague of rodents they say are invading their street. One person has even been bitten.

A resident, who has asked not to be named, said around 10 to 15 per day were being caught in traps.

He said the problem had been ongoing for the last six weeks, but had never been an issue before.

“We’ve got a granddaughter and we can’t leave her out in the back garden,” he said.

“People are not putting their pets out. The cats are bringing them in as trophies.”

He described the problem as being “biblical” and said: “They are everywhere and rats breed like they are going out of fashion.”

He said he and others were also concerned about the diseases rodents could carry and has urged Bradford Council to take action.

Another resident, Mason Pilkington, 70, said: “It’s getting to the point where you daren’t leave your patio door open. It’s not nice. Everybody around here has seen them.”

He added: “Some are really big. They are quite brazen.”

While Nicola Akers, 48, added: “You just don’t want rats coming in your house.

“It’s becoming a bit worrying – it’s a much bigger issue than we thought.

“We’ve seen two really big ones, I thought ‘what the hell is that?’”

She said the problem seemed to be escalating and as little ones had also been spotted, it suggested the rats were breeding.

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Mrs Akers added: “We’ve lived here 21 years and never seen anything like that.

“Something has got to have happened.”

There has been concern that work on a nearby housing development or work to repair a damaged sewer at Ford could have led to the problem.

But builder Michael McGurk said Environmental Health and pest control had visited the site and could not see any signs of rodents and said the problem had not stemmed from there.

A Yorkshire Water spokesperson said: “We are not aware of any evidence which links sewer repairs to an increase in rodent activity. We investigated our network on Moor Close Farm on May 7 and were unable to find any issues.”

Councillor Andrew Senior (Con, Queensbury) said: “It has been brought to my attention recently that a large number of rodents have appeared suddenly where none have been seen before. I have visited the site, spoken with the residents and I also share their concerns and I am pushing the council hard to liaise with Yorkshire water and get to the bottom of where the rodents are coming from as a matter of urgency.”

A spokesperson for Bradford Council said the matter was still being investigated by the council, with the help of a pest control company.

He added: “We are supporting residents to find a solution as quickly as possible.”