Nine tonnes of rubbish cleared from Walsall street where residents have seen rats and complained of bad smells
Around nine tonnes of fly-tipping has been cleared from a Walsall street where residents have complained of bad smells and seeing rodents among piles of rubbish.
The rubbish, described by Walsall Council as a "significant amount", was removed from Dalkeith Street in the Birchills area on Tuesday (January 8).
Road closures were in place while five loads of waste were loaded onto lorries to be disposed.
Walsall Council said a legal notice had initially been served to a property on Hollyhedge Lane, which backs onto Dalkeith Street, to remove the waste.
The notice expired at midnight on December 6 and after reviewing the site, the local authority concluded "best efforts had not been made" to dispose of the rubbish.
Due to the impact on the surrounding area and the suspected health risks posed by the waste, the council said it had to step in to clear it.
Councillor Garry Perry, Walsall Council leader, said: “The council has invested considerable resources to address the fly-tipping issues on Dalkeith Street.
"It is severely disappointing that such extreme measures were necessary, but we had to intervene after our legal notices were not satisfactorily adhered to.
"We intend to proceed with legal action which, if successful, will require those responsible to pay for the clean up. I want this to serve as a stark reminder that fly-tippers will not get away with it and will be fined.
“We have a zero-tolerance approach to fly-tipping in Walsall, and those who choose to blight our community will not go unpunished."
Residents living on Dalkeith Street spoke last year of their upset at seeing waste on the road.
One resident, Ishjaq Bostan, said he wanted to see the issue sorted.
The 44-year-old said: “I lived here all my life. There is too much rubbish. When I walk past early in the morning, I see mice and rats... It’s smelly and dirty."
Another resident told the Express & Star that as soon as rubbish is removed from the road, more is replaced.
Speaking in November last year, they said: "I've watched as this dump gets bigger, workers remove the rubbish and then hours later it is replaced.
"Now it stretches all down the street and is disgusting - there are rats, fridges, you name it. I bet this would not be allowed to happen in a nicer area. But in Birchills it is just ignored."
Since April 2022, Walsall Council has cleared 74 different fly-tipping incidents from the streets of Walsall, costing around £15,000 in total.
CCTV cameras have been installed in the borough in a bid to deter people from dumping rubbish.
