Pensioners say the surprise arrival of two huge bin sheds has "ruined" their street.

The seven-foot tall eyesores were put up outside a small block of flats in St Johns Crescent in Tyler Hill, on the outskirts of Canterbury, two weeks ago.

Housing bosses say the wooden structures were installed to reduce the risk of fires.

But one resident says the sheds in her front garden are now all she can see when sitting in the front room of her ground floor flat.

“They are taller than I am, as you can go into these sheds to get your bins,” said Barbara Harradine, who has lived in the neatly kept residential road for almost 40 years.

“They’re not particularly nice to look at, to put it mildly. I used to be able to see people, cars and dogs going up and down the road. But you can’t see anything now.

“I try not to look out. I just try and keep my eyes averted.”

Passers-by have also been mocking the sheds, according to Mrs Harradine, who is in her 80s.

“People go past them, look at them and laugh.

She added: “We have got such a nice road here and it has just ruined it.

“Everybody going by has been laughing at them and saying, 'good grief, what are those for'?

“They’re so obstructive to look at, it’s horrible. They’re right outside my window, and it’s the same for the lady next door.”

“Upstairs are a bit luckier, but they still look onto them.”

Mrs Harradine says residents, who have been keeping their bins outside their building without issue for many years, have no idea why the storage sheds have been built.

They only found out about the plans after workmen began laying concrete slabs on the grass in front of the two-storey block, which contains four flats.

"They're so obstructive to look at, it's horrible... they're right outside my window, and it's the same for the lady next door" - Barbara Harradine

“We knew nothing at all about this. A letter arrived to say that some concrete was being laid down, but we didn’t know why until a few days later, when the sheds arrived,” she continued.

“We asked the worker what they were for, and they told us there were some bins going in.

“We have kept our bins outside for a long long while, so we can’t understand it really.

“It’s very strange. I share a bin with the lady upstairs, which is sufficient for the two of us. Now we have got a shed.”

East Kent Housing revealed plans are underway for similar sheds at three more blocks in St John’s Crescent - and the work followed discussions with the fire service.

A spokesman added: “That process concluded there was a fire risk due to the number of individual bins being stored around the entrance to the block of flats and under the entrance canopy.

“A new, non-combustible communal area for refuse bins has now been created five metres from the building, which meets national guidelines and provides residents with greater fire safety than before.

“There are another three blocks at St Johns Crescent that have similar issues and work to install communal refuse bin areas at these is currently being planned.”