Council flat tenants are furious at being told to use their sheds to store rubbish - or risk a £70 fine for flytipping.

Residents claim they have nowhere to store rubbish in their flats at Thomson Terrace, Littlemore, Oxford, and are not allowed to leave it outside for more than a day before collection.

Oxford City Council has told them to keep it in sheds behind their flats, but tenants say the sheds are the only storage space they have for their children's toys and bikes.

One couple, Mark and Paula Temple, have already been fined after leaving sacks of rubbish on the pavement.

Mrs Temple, mother to Chelsea, five, Conor, three, two-year-old Ben, said: "I felt pretty annoyed at being fined. We've got nowhere to put our rubbish and they are saying we're dumping it.

"We have to put it out on Monday night or Tuesday morning so it can be collected then, but where do we keep it in the meantime?

"We've got a two-bed flat and I've got three kids. They are at the age where they have got bikes and toys and we need the shed for storage."

Neighbour Lynsey de Lastic, a mum-of-two, said: "We feel as though our hands are tied.

"The council isn't prepared to provide us with somewhere for our rubbish to be stored but they are still prepared to take our money off us when we are forced to place rubbish outside.

"I think that we are one of the only sets of flats that has no designated area for rubbish and we are at our wits' end."

City council spokesman Louisa Dean said: "The majority of tenants in Thomson Terrace put out their refuse sacks on the appropriate day for collection.

"However, some have left their rubbish in the communal grass area and we have had to take action against them.

"The flats have brick-built sheds where they can store their rubbish before collection date."

Last month, the Oxford Mail reported that illegally-dumped waste in Oxfordshire had soared by a staggering 60 per cent in a year, an average of 16 incidents a day.

Fly-tipping is now such a problem that teams of council enforcement officers are acting on public tip-offs and conducting covert surveillance to catch the worst offenders. Fly-tippers face a maximum fine of £50,000 and imprisonment.