A CAMPAIGN by Pickering residents fed up of flies and rotting rubbish is gaining support.

More than 150 people have signed a petition asking for the council to switch back to collecting rubbish weekly instead of the new fortnightly pattern.

Swarms of flies have been bothering the town since early June, but environmental health officers say the cause of the flies has now been tackled.

Tony Stuttard, environmental health officer for Ryedale District Council, wrote to residents who had complained to say that a local free range egg production unit had been under investigation since the first complaints, but that they had been unable to find evidence of flies at the unit.

He said: "A further recent visit however revealed very significant numbers of flies in one of the units at the farm. The farmer now accepts the problem and further fly control measures have been put in place."

He said there had been a sharp drop in flies at the unit, adding: "Householders should expect to experience a similar reduction of flies at their property."

But many people now believe overflowing rubbish bins are part of the problem. Christina Vance, owner of the Pickering Antique Centre, where the petition is being signed, said: "Flies multiply at an enormous rate; it takes roughly two weeks from hatching to laying eggs and a breeding ground is rotting garbage.

"Refuse collection on a weekly basis has a marked effect on controlling fly numbers which is why, because our refuse is now being collected fortnightly, the flies have become a real problem.

"I am sure most residents of Pickering back the recycling issue, but we are not prepared to put ourselves and our children at risk from disease. Household refuse must be collected on a weekly basis.

She said many people in Pickering live in terraced cottages and therefore don't have a wheelie bin, having to put bags of overflowing rubbish on the street. "Even if this were not a fly issue, we do not want rotting garbage in our gardens for up to a fortnight giving off bad smells," she added.

Mrs Vance said a lot of the people who had signed the petition were tourists who said their stay had been blighted by the flies, and that most lived in areas where their domestic waste was collected weekly.

But Mr Stuttard said: "We are confident that the alternate week collection of recycling waste and domestic refuse has not been a contributory factor."

He said the recycling scheme had started in Pickering in July 2004 without any problems, and that the alternate week collection had been operating in parts of Malton and Norton since March 2003 without any such problems.

Updated: 15:58 Wednesday, July 27, 2005