Loose horses and the mess they create are blighting the lives of people who live in Undercliffe, a councillor has warned.

Coun Howard Middleton said action must be taken to prevent a “serious accident”.

He said: “Last week we had a horse running free in Peel Park, we have horses appearing in Otley Road, tethered, then not tethered. We have had a spate of this in the last month.

“Something is going to have to happen because there will be a serious accident. Otley Road is a busy road and Cliffe Road is near a school.

“We have got a problem with the horses and the mess they are causing. We’ve had horses in gardens, the park, on land, it is a particular problem. It’s now not unknown to come across horses on the streets on a daily basis.”

Resident Sheraz Ghafoor, 29, of Cliffe Road, off Otley Road, said up to six horses had been seen on land next to Feversham College on and off since January.

He has taken photographs of a horse tethered to a bin in Otley Road.

“The horse was tied on a public pavement,” he said. “It’s the same pavement where children walk to school, it’s right opposite the cemetery on Otley Road, children walk past there in the mornings, evenings, residents old and young. We have seen horse waste so many times on the footpath. They are quite often behind my house, some loose, some tied up.

“They left the horse tied to the bin for ten hours, on a public footpath. There’s no grass for them.”

Lynn Murphy, business manager at Feversham College, said: “We are working with the police and the community and the residents and Bradford Council environmental services. We are trying to improve the situation. We have limited funds, the Council own the land although Feversham is responsible for the land.

“It is trying to get a compromise between what is within our remit and trying to benefit the residents there.”

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