Plastic bags from Tesco are blighting a neighbourhood.

Fed-up householders living near the supermarket in Church Road, Hove, say its blue and white bags litter trees and gardens and make the area look like a rubbish dump.

Windy weather makes the problem even worse.

Although residents try to clear the bags, they are often unreachable when they get tangled in tall trees.

They say it's a mystery why so many bags blow into the street.

Residents are now urging Tesco to tackle the problem and organise a clear-up to stop the problem spoiling their neighbourhood.

Abigail Westall, 35, of Vallance Road, Hove, one of the worst-hit areas, said: "The wind blows the bags towards our homes and they get stuck in the trees. I have been wondering how to get Tesco to pay to have them removed."

Neighbour Melody Roche, 29, regularly clears bags from her front garden with her five-year-old daughter Milly.

She said: "A lot of the bags haven't been used. It looks really horrible, especially in the front gardens. I saw tourists taking pictures the other day. I couldn't believe it.

"Tesco does have plastic bag recycling outside the entrance but it's often really full. I haven't seen anyone trying to clear them away and you would assume it would be easy with a grabber."

Hugh Hussell, 81, of nearby Hove Street, said: "If a bag blew on to somebody's car windscreen while they were driving it could be disastrous."

Tourist Cyrille Marcel was shocked by the sight. He said: "Vallance Road just looks like a garbage magnet now. This is disgusting and I would be appalled if I recycled my rubbish to find my street looking like a municipal dump.

"Tesco should be promoting environmental issues instead of giving away as many free carrier bags as people want."

A Tesco spokesman said it would investigate the problem.

But he said: "We only have so much control over what happens to the carrier bags. We have a policy of being vigilant and doing our very best to keep the area around us tidy. If there is a problem we will address it.

"We have the Bag For Life scheme which encourages re-use of bags and we have looked into other types of packaging but customer feedback tells us they want plastic bags."

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokeswoman said the authority could remove plastic bags from trees if the problem was reported.

She urged residents to contact Cityclean, the council's refuse and recycling department, on 01273 292929.

Last month, The Argus reported how eco-warriors Take It Back were campaigning to cut the packaging on supermarket foods and reduce waste rather than rely on recycling.

It carried out a survey and found an overwhelming majority of people were in favour of minimising packaging, using recyclable or biodegradable wrappers and charging for shopping bags to encourage re-use.

But Claire Debenham, who leads the campaign, said packaging was a £9bn business and although there were international environmental agreements to phase out bulk packaging by 2010, work was not moving fast enough in the right direction.