HUNDREDS of rats have “infested” gardens in Witney after land for a new 185-home estate was cleared, residents have said.

Ever since workers at the former Buttercross Works, off Station Lane, cleared the site’s perimeter of six-foot high brambles about four weeks ago rats and new burrows have been seen in nearby gardens and along public footpaths.

The owners of the Buttercross site said, if rats had been displaced, they “very much regretted” it and rat catchers were due on site yesterday.

Emma Barwell, of The Springs, said she had seen some 15 rats in the last three weeks along a public footpath that runs past the site.

She said: “There must be hundreds of rats looking for new homes. It is an infestation. It needs tackling.”

Liz Bradshaw, of The Springs, said: “I have noticed fairly hefty rats and rat holes in the garden in the last couple of days, which I have never seen before.

“They carry disease and my children play there. I am going to be careful what my children do and where they do it now.”

Charlie Donald, 37, of The Springs, said: “Straight after they started work on the site you saw them along the footpath.

“They are going to get out of the wasteland that is being dug up and go to the nearest thing, and it is definitely going to increase when they start excavating.

“It was pretty inevitable there was going to be a lot of vermin living in that waste land and before any work began there they should have had pest control in.”

The designer of the new estate, Peter Mapson, said it regretted any evidence of rats and called out pest control yesterday.

West Oxfordshire District Council spokesman Sara Long said: “The council is aware of a rodent problem at the Buttercross Works site in Witney.

“Landowners must take all reasonable steps to keep their land free from rats and we would encourage them to contact the council if they believe they have a rodent infestation to prevent this kind of incident.”

She said the council can issue notices requiring landowners to eliminate pest problems if no action is taken.

The new estate was given permission by West Oxfordshire District Council in January and will include 105 terraced homes and a block of 80 flats for the elderly.

Building work is expected to start in September.