People flinging food waste into public areas of a town centre block of flats are making it unsafe and attracting rats, residents say.

Tenant Ryan, who lives in North Star House near Swindon train station, said living standards have significantly declined as food is ‘constantly flung into communal areas’.

This is despite the flats being advertised to tenants as ‘luxury apartments’ by the management company itsyourplace.

He said: “Some residents have to go out and clean it, they usually have to wrap bin bags over their arms to make sure they don't get anything nasty from rotting food.

"There are flats above the courtyard who are throwing food into the courtyard, so it’s not the people who have access to the courtyard itself.

“There are inner courtyards which can be used as a garden area for residents as specific flats have access and pay for this benefit.

"They are being cheated as they cannot use them, as currently it is unsafe from the food being thrown into the area. Rental prices have obviously not been adjusted to account for this. People are paying between £1,000 and £1,300.”

Ryan also claims correspondence between renters and the management company has been ongoing for nearly a year and nobody has come to clean the communal areas or investigate the issue further.

“The management agency acknowledges complaints and says they will send out communications to tenants to ‘warn them’, he explained.

“There are never any emails sent though. There are multiple tenants in the block who are all complaining and they have advised that if I get a recording of catching people in the act then they will be able to charge them a cleaning fee.

“The agency refuses to clean or deal with these communal areas and the standards of living here have become unsafe for tenants. There have been rats and other animals sighted in the inner courtyards of the property and the flats have been reported to environmental health.

“If we don’t go out and clean it, nobody will.”

The property manager said: "Some of our residents living in the building do abuse the internal courtyard areas and one of the flats has video footage of tenants throwing food down into the courtyard.

"Despite a number of communications from myself this issue seems to mindlessly continue.

"I do not have any reports of rats in the internal courtyards, and on a recent visit nothing of this nature was seen – no droppings etc.

"However given the behaviour of some of the residents it is very possible that this may be the case.

"We had a while back requested quotes from our cleaners to visit the courtyards to clear up after these residents and these quotes were approved by the freeholder who understands the issue fully.

"However access is dependent on someone being home and willing to let them through their flat to sweep up in the internal areas.

"They are due at the development on Thursday and having now spoken with the caretaker it seems someone may have mentioned seeing a rat to him recently so I have arranged for pest control to take a look and they are attending on Monday.

"I have reinforced the importance with him of asking residents to report issues directly into our office."