Rat fears as overflowing bins leave street looking like this

Oct 20, 2023

Hatrell Street, in Newcastle-under-Lyme, has become a dumping ground

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Frustrated families are calling for £400 fly-tipping fines to be issued - after their street was turned into a dumping ground. Rubbish has been left piled next to overflowing wheelie bins on Hatrell Street, in Newcastle-under-Lyme, in recent weeks.

The mountain of waste has included electrical items, a duvet, and empty pizza boxes. Now neighbours are blaming it on landlords who are clearing their properties of rubbish after students left for the summer.

It comes as Newcastle Borough Council is set to start issuing the maximum £400 fly-tipping fines - like in neighbouring Stoke-on-Trent.

Resident Jason Poole said: “It is annoying when you try to keep your area as clean as you can. One of the issues we have is that there are a lot of students who live nearby and most of them have now gone home and this means the landlords start to clear the properties."

READ: Plans for new £400 fines for Newcastle fly-tippers in bid to clean up town

Neighbour Laura Johnson said: “I have reported it. It absolutely stinks. I know people have had a rat problem, it is just frustrating. There is always a congestion of bins which are not collected and rubbish is just dumped in them.

“We just want something done about it, whether that means fining people or removing their bins. When it has happened before, it has been reported to the council and it gets cleaned up and then as soon as they’ve done it more rubbish is dumped.”

Chrissy King wasted 40 minutes trying to get through to the council on the phone - without success. She has even been stuffing some of the rubbish in empty bins.

She said: “It is one of the issues we’ve got with this road because there are a lot of HMOs so at the moment a lot of the students have been kicked out and the houses are being emptied. It’s a difficult one, who is ultimately responsible, the students or the landlord."

Newcastle Borough Council is blaming the issue on bins not being collected.

Councillor David Hutchison, cabinet member for sustainable environment, said: “We’re sorry that this resident’s bin was not emptied on this occasion and would ask that she gets in touch as soon as possible so that we can look into the matter and avoid it happening again. We will also speak to the refuse team.”

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