Householders are calling for controversial wheelie bins on their estate to stop their bin bags being pecked open by birds.

While many in Brighton and Hove are against the bins, residents of Beatty Road, Coldean, say the bins are the only thing which will stop rubbish being strewn across their street.

People have to put out their black bin bags by 7.30am every Friday for collection but say within half an hour crows, rooks and seagulls have ripped them to bits.

Charlie Baldey, 73, has lived in Beatty Road for ten years.

He said: "The birds sit on the roof waiting for the bin bags to come out. It's crows and seagulls now when it used to just be seagulls and it's been getting worse and worse.

"You have to put the bags out, though, otherwise the bin men won't collect them and you're stuck with them for another week.

"They used to come and take the bags out of the bins but they don't do that any more.

"If we had wheelie bins it would solve the problem once and for all."

Mr Baldey said he used to be on the residents' committee but said it does not have powers to do anything about the problem or to get the council to listen.

He said: "Some things you just have to put up with.

"It doesn't help that some people feed the birds and that makes them come back but it's difficult to stop them."

Jan and Arthur Elsey, who live in Beatty Avenue, said the problem was getting worse every day.

Mrs Elsey said: "It's absolutely terrible. I had a chicken carcass dropped on my head by one of those birds the other day.

"They should be living in the woods, not hanging around our houses.

"We like the small birds because they're lovely to have around but the crows and the rooks have become a menace."

She said some people's cars had been damaged by the birds pecking at them in the street.

She said: "We need to get people to stop feeding them."

Mr Elsey said: "We've lived here since 1969 and this is the first time it's been a problem.

"I called pest control when the chicken carcass fell on Jan's head but they didn't seem interested."

Councillor Pat Hawkes, a member of Brighton and Hove City Council, also lives in Beatty Avenue.

She said her bags were frequently attacked by birds and rubbish was spread across the road within half an hour of putting the bin bags out.

She said: "We've got a bird curse out here - it's like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds sometimes as they sit there waiting.

"I know we are a long way down the list for wheelie bins but we really want them.

"We wouldn't complain about them, the way people in other parts of the city have."

She said more people in Brighton wanted wheelie bins than didn't.

She said: "People are trying to keep up high standards but it's hard when this is going on all the time."

A council spokesman said over the next two months Cityclean would be carrying out a house-by-house survey in Moulsecoomb, Coldean and Hollingbury."

He said: "The survey will determine which houses are suitable for wheelie bins.

"The results of the survey will have to pass through environment and policy and resources committee at the end of September."

He said a letter would be sent to residents in October.