SHOPS have been urged to avoid leaving rubbish bags outside their premises for too long - amid fears it "blights" the city.

Many bags get torn open by seagulls, leaving waste strewn across the floor, or are torn up by revellers going home after a night drinking.

Now the city council is going to explore ways of cracking down on the problem, with possible measures including tighter collection times for businesses, who claim they are not to blame for the delay between putting the waste out for collection and it being picked up.

Councillor Roger Knight, the city’s former bins chief, says it is a “serious issue” that needs to be finally resolved.

Speaking during a full council meeting at the Guildhall, he said: “These bins litter the High Street, they are a blight on the city’s streets and it is an issue which needs to be tackled.”

The authority runs a ‘trade waste’ scheme, where business owners pay a fee to the city council to have their rubbish collected.

At the moment, around 650 customers take it up, and each one collects plastic bags from The Hive before leaving them outside for one day each week.

Each retailer is given a particular day for collection, and one council vehicle goes around the city from 5.30am to pick them up.

Bosses say they are “concerned” about too many premises leaving them out for too long, and are now investigating possible solutions.

One possible crackdown might be to give each business a specific time slot, instead of a day.

Councillor Matthew Lamb, the cabinet member for cleaner and greener, said: “This is an issue which does concern people, and it concerns me.

“Other councils have introduced time-limited collection schemes, and it does sound sensible to do that but it would be subject to consultation.

“We are all committed to making Worcester a more attractive place to live and visit.”

The businesses which opt out of the council’s trade waste scheme either dispose of their rubbish themselves, or get a private company to do it.

Adrian Field, from Worcester’s BID (Business Improvement District), which represents the shops, said: “It is a problem because the bags can be unsightly, it’s not good for the night time economy, for tourists or the gulls.

“If you’re a retailer, you might lock up at 5.30pm and because you don’t know what time the rubbish will be picked up, it could be 7am, or 11am, you leave it out then and in theory, it could be outside for 15 hours.

“We’d like to see a situation where we have one supplier which picks up all waste before 7pm at night - that’s the utopia.”