The putrefying contents of a ripped bin bag spill out on to the pavement. Nearby a wheelie bin lies on its side, its fetid stench filling the air.

Elsewhere, a supermarket shopping trolley sits on the road amid rotting bread, beer bottles and a discarded butter container.

This isn’t some inner-city sink estate nor some grim Third World hole. Our photographs show Regency Place, a cul-de-sac off Military Road.

Ironically, it is about 200 yards from the offices of Canterbury City Council, which earlier this year declared a fresh assault on litter and rubbish.

Regency Place is now being denounced as the most untidy street in the city.

“The Gazette photographs of Regency Place are the worst I’ve ever seen for rubbish,” said anti-litter campaigner Sian Pettman. “It is truly is disgusting and I’ve seen some pretty awful areas in Canterbury,”

Sian, who co-ordinates litter-picks in the Kingsmead area, contributes regularly to the Canterbury Grot-Spots page on Facebook.

She added: “There are some pretty awful sights on the page and the hope is that publishing them helps encourage them to be cleaned up.

“Regency Place is the worst residential area, but there are some pretty bad places elsewhere, especially railway land owned by Network Rail.”

The houses at Regency Place were built as family homes, but with one exception are now homes in multiple occupation (HMOs).

Labour’s Cllr Alan Baldock, who represents the Northgate ward which covers the road, wants pressure exerted on landlords to ensure their properties are well-kept and rubbish properly disposed of.

“This truly awful mess is all too common and comes at the end of every academic term,” he said.

“It’s the result of a failure of shared responsibility, a city council waste collection system not fit for purpose and regrettably some HMO residents failing to do their bit to keep the community clean and tidy.

“Also, landlords and letting agents fail to spend a time and effort to make sure their tenants manage the end-of-term waste and put the bins back in their property after collection day.

“It’s not unreasonable given that they are happy to take between £1,000 to £2,000 every month in rent as well as benefiting from not paying council tax on student lets.”

In November Cllr Oliver Fawcett took on the role of litter liaison for the city council and developed a “multi-pronged” approach which included setting up the Grot-Spots group on Facebook, which is dedicated to identifying problem areas.

The Conservative said: “Regency Place is the worst I’ve seen since I started the litter liaison role.

“It is truly disgusting, an eyesore in what can be an attractive part of Northgate ward.

“Unfortunately, this is a classic example of where irresponsible residents and negligent landlords don’t take responsibility for the general appearance of their local area.

“They are happy instead to rely on the efforts of volunteers and the work of the public services.”

The city council says it took immediate action after being notified of the state of Regency Place and cleaned the public areas of the road for which it has responsibilty.

Spokesman Rob Davies said: “The recycling bins pictured had been contaminated with non-recyclable material, which means we have been unable to empty them as they would contaminate the entire refuse truck load.

“We’ll be aiming to work with landlords and residents to ensure the correct containers are used in future and prevent this from happening again. Enforcement action may be taken where necessary.”