IT is like a scene from A Life of Grime.

Six-foot-high brambles fill the garden, smothering a rusting bike hidden in the undergrowth.

But although neighbours of this abandoned house have seen and heard rats, and found electricity cables gnawed through, council officials told them they don’t have a pest problem.

Ben Bienkowski and Tina Jermy live either side of the empty house on Foxhall Road. The owners moved away six years ago and visit a few times a year.

The garden has been left untended – forcing neighbours to replace fence panels pushed over by the undergrowth and spend hundreds of pounds on weedkiller to spray into the garden.

Now they say they are plagued by rats, but South Oxfordshire District Council claims there is not a problem.

Mr Bienkowski, 60, said: “I’ve seen a rat. There’s no doubt in my mind it was a rat. I know what a rat looks like.

“Yet environmental health officers are saying there’s no evidence of rats.”

He returned from holiday last week to find his electricity supply cut off after rodents gnawed through the cable. Now he can hear scratching inside his wall cavity, and believes the rats have got in from next door.

Mrs Jermy, who has two young sons, said: “We’ve seen a great big rat. My husband had to go into the garden to get the kids’ ball back, and he could see the runs underneath the shed there.”

Dorothy Brown, council cabinet member for housing and health, said: “We are investigating a complaint regarding a rodent problem at a property in Foxhall Road. We previously investigated this property, but could not identify any evidence of an infestation at that time.

“Where we can’t demonstrate the property is causing a nuisance or health risk to neighbouring properties, we are unable to take action or force the owner of an overgrown or unmaintained property to carry out work.

“If we uncover evidence of an infestation, in the first instance we will endeavour to get the owners to resolve the problem.”