‘EVERYTHING’S FILTHY AND IS GOING TO POT’
Call for CCTV as fly-tippers and addicts blight alleyway
FED-UP Alan Whitehead is considering selling his home of 20 years – because the neighbourhood is regularly targeted by fly-tippers.
The 53-year-old says rubbish is repeatedly left in an alleyway behind Keary Street in Stoke and the problem has been going on for four years.
Waste has been reportedly left behind a derelict property and has spilled out onto the alleyway.
It includes dirty nappies, mattresses, suitcases, toys and bags of food.
Alan says Stoke-on-trent City Council does come out to clean up the mess – only for it to pile up again.
Now he’s calling on the local authority to install CCTV cameras to catch the fly-tippers in the act.
He said: “There’s a house that’s been empty for a while. People are using the back of the house to just dump rubbish.
“There’s a big problem around here with drugs as well. There’s a lot of addicts. I saw a girl the other day and she was just standing in the middle of all the rubbish.
“My partner says it’s not just this alleyway, it’s all the adjoining alleyways as well. There’s a big problem around here and it’s horrendous.
“If somebody rings the council it takes them a while to come out and when they do you can guarantee in a few days it’s the same again where you’ll go outside and see an old television or fridge. People come along and just add to it.
“Before you know it you’ve got a pile of rubbish. Summer is coming, it’s going to be stinking. There’s probably going to be rats in there. It brings you down because we’ve lived here for 20 years and the area around here is declining.
“It seems as if it’s hit rock bottom and nobody seems to care about it anymore.
“We are ready to sell up and it shouldn’t be like that when you’ve been in the house for so long. Everything is filthy and going to pot.
“The only way to fix it is by getting a camera up at the start of the alleyway, it would stop a lot of it. It’s the only way people will listen.
“You ring the council and mention something like that and it’s all budgets and things but something needs to be done.
“The city council isn’t doing enough to tackle fly-tipping.”
Stoke-on-trent City Council says it has received ‘several’ complaints about fly-tipping in this area.
Councillor Carl Edwards, cabinet member for Housing and Environment, said: “Just this year we have received several complaints about fly-tipping in this area.
“It is completely unacceptable that people think it’s OK to blight an area because they are too lazy to take their waste to the tip – even more so when the tip is practically on the doorstep.
“Once again we will clean up this eyesore – and spend a considerable amount of taxpayers’ money which to be honest would be better spent on other essential services.
“We will be combing through the rubbish to find any evidence of the people responsible – and we will take necessary enforcement action when we do.”