Festering mountain of rubbish dumped outside home sparks misery for neighbours

25 August 2023 , 19:06

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Rubbish is pictured in the front garden of the property (Image: BPM MEDIA)

This astonishing mountain of rubbish has been festering outside a property for one year - with neighbours begging for it to be cleared.

The pile of junk keeps getting removed and reappearing in front of the house in Handsworth, Birmingham. A housing association owns the site and said it will now launch legal action against the tenants; a man and a woman in their 60s.

The litter has piled up over time and now annoyed neighbours don't want to open their windows due to the stench.

Neighbours have shared their fury at the mess outside the property in Birmingham (BPM MEDIA)

Speaking to Birmingham Live, mum-of-five Nasra Mohamed, 54, said: "I'm so very tired of this situation. The smell is not nice. You want to open the windows on a hot day but we can't. Their garden (at the back) is the same.

"We're also getting all these ants coming into our property. Everything is out there, old clothes, chairs, a protective medical boot, a supermarket trolley, all discarded items.

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"It was cleared once by someone we think was the son of the woman living there last year. But then more returns. She is a nice woman who lives there - but nothing changes. So many neighbours have complained. We've tried to speak to the housing association, but it's been bad like this for five years. This situation is ridiculous - something needs to be done."

Damp clothes and old household items fill the front entrance of the building (BPM MEDIA)

Damp clothes and old household items, which could be a fire hazard, fill the front entrance to the terraced home. The front door is barely accessible. Nearby householders said rubbish was also stacked up in the back garden.

But the motive for keeping the junk is unclear. Another resident added: "I'm not sure if it's charity or they are selling the clothes, but they are leaving it outside exposed to the weather. It's damp and awful."

Midland Heart owns the house, which is on a majority road that connects Birmingham with West Bromwich, West Midlands.

Vicki Brownhill, the head of housing management at Midland Heart, told BirminghamLive: "We fully understand the impact this has had on the local community and have been working with our tenant to help address these issues for some time.

"We have already completed several clearances of the affected area and tried to facilitate conversations to improve relationships in the area to find a long-term solution for everyone.

"Unfortunately, this has not been as successful as we hoped and as a result we have had to as a last resort start appropriate legal action.” BirminghamLive made repeated attempts to contact the tenants at the home, who were unavailable for comment.

Ben Perrin