Old sofas, fridges, rubbish and even bags of rotting offal have been found dumped on the streets of a Worcester estate.
It’s been suggested that people are reverting to fly-tipping their waste in Tolladine as the area struggles to cope with overcrowding as more and more homes are being converted into houses of multiple occupation.
Now a meeting has been set up by local councillors to prompt private landlords to take more responsibility for waste removal and the general upkeep of the area.
One overgrown garden on the corner of Dee Way and Avon Road, Tolladine has become a dumping ground for old mattresses, fridges, freezers, broken furniture, cardboard boxes and other rubbish. The owner, Cllr Nida Hassan, who has had the property for the last eight years, said she had so far paid £1,000 to clear the garden three times (the last time only a couple of months ago) - but people kept dumping rubbish and she is now looking at paying to fence it off and install CCTV to deter fly-tippers.
"It has really started happening in the past year and a half. It's not a great situation and it's something that never used to happen. It makes it difficult for everyone around the area. It's sad we have to fence it off where it's a nice green area," she said.
The reporter knocked on the door of 70A Avon Road but there was no answer although a tenant is said to live there.
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Meanwhile, a sofa and chair have been dumped by a post box in Avon Road and open bags of rancid old bones and offal were found in Teme Road and Avon Road.
Edward Kimberley, who stood as a Labour candidate in the ward in May 2022, said: "Avon and Teme Roads were council estates built with small, family-sized houses designed to accommodate a specific number of people.
"Now these are being turned into HMOs, far more people are being crammed in, and public services (like waste collection and on-street parking) have failed to keep pace. Many tenants in this area are effectively locked out of whatever help the council could provide them, because they don't speak fluent English, leaving them depending on their landlords for everything. We need to do a much better job of reaching out to them, and letting them know help is available."
The 27-year-old said he was concerned the rubbish could attract vermin, calling this part of Tolladine 'generally dilapidated' and featuring 'neglect of all kinds'. "Rubbish in the street, discarded offal and fly-tipping is normal here", he said.
Although he said he had never seen vermin he added: "I know they're around - how can they not be (given the amount of rubbish)? Certainly, there's a risk of vermin."
Mohammed Altaf, a Conservative city ward councillor for the area, said sometimes tenants moved out and left rubbish, including furniture behind, but that a meeting was due to take place with various landlords to discuss and resolve the issue in the next fortnight. "In two weeks you will start to see improvements in this area," he said.
Cllr Altaf, who owns several properties in Avon Road and Teme Road, said he would ensure skips were brought back to the area in June 'to help with the issue of fly-tipping' as he had done last year.
He added that he had used money from his council budget to bring skips to the area.
"If I need to spend any money I will spend money out of my own pocket. It was me that brought back the Saturday Skips because they had been taken away," he said.
He also said he allowed the car park of Altaf's Balti every four weeks free of charge so this Worcester City Council service could be provided.
Cllr Altaf suggested more should be done to help the area's multi-cultural population access council services.
"It needs to be explained the green bin is for recycling and the black bin isn't," he said.
This was something he said he explained to his own tenants, telling them rubbish left in the wrong bin would not be collected.
A spokesperson for Worcester City Council said: “We would like to thank the resident who alerted us to the sofa and other rubbish dumped in Avon Road. We are making arrangements for this to be removed and it should be gone by the close of business today (Tuesday). We would encourage residents to report any fly-tipping they spot in the city to us at www.worcester.gov.uk/report-it. We will also investigate the site at Teme Road.”
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