Litter in the streets is attracting rats and turning the town into a rubbish dump, a town councillor has claimed.

Cllr Tessa de Galleani is calling on people to tidy up their act and have more respect for their surroundings.

‘We live in a beautiful place and people with little or no respect for the town should think about leaving,’ she said.

‘Dartmouth is fast becoming a rubbish dump.’

Cllr de Galleani said people were still refusing to put weekly household waste into seagull-proof bags, even though they were available free of charge from the town council at the Guildhall.

‘People think it is acceptable to empty their car ashtrays on to the street and throw down cigarette ends,’ she said.

‘We have people tying their dog poo bags on to hand rails or depositing the bags into other people’s waste bins where they sit festering until they are taken out by householders.

‘Now this week two branches were snapped off trees in the car park at the back of the Old Market and thrown under stalls.

‘Those trees were gifted to the town to make it look beautiful and people come along and treat them as an inconvenience if they can’t park their car.’

Cllr de Galleani said rubbish bags had also been dumped behind trees in Royal Avenue Gardens.

‘This has attracted rats which have been spotted in the gardens and in the Old Market,’ she said.

Meanwhile, the town council’s corporate property committee wants to look into the management of Royal Avenue Gardens. Some councillors are concerned at the increase in activities there linked to the hiring of the town council-run amenity hut and informal busking in the bandstand.

Cllr Francis Hawke told a meeting on Monday that he would like to see the council take over the ownership of the gardens and Coronation Park from South Hams Council.