We return to a Birmingham road near Villa Park to see if it is still ‘Britain’s grottiest street’

Wading through 4ft-high rat-infested rubbish and junk was not on my agenda last week but, six months since Deykin Avenue was named ‘Britain’s grottiest street’, I went back to Aston in Birmingham to see if it’s been cleared up. The answer: a big fat no.

From countless stained mattresses to old sofas, smashed-in doors, cushions, carpets, fridge-freezers, plastic toys, tyres, a rusty barbecue and gas canisters; you name it, rubbish was just everywhere along the alleyways between Deykin Avenue and Brantley Road, two streets within a stone’s throw away from Villa Park.

“We’re absolutely traumatised by it,” pensioner Wendy Scott fumed. “We just hate it. Hate it. We just don’t go out the back and we can’t get any workmen to come ‘round. We can’t get my window cleaner to come ‘round to do my windows. It’s just a nightmare. We can’t drive the car around. We went to the dump last week and we had to bring all of our rubbish through the house to the car.

‘We just don’t stand a chance’

Wendy has lived in her immaculately-kept home with husband John since 1966 but, in June 2020 during the pandemic, waste and piles of fly-tipped rubbish in the alleyways off Deykin Avenue have been getting bigger and bigger. As for 83-year-old John, he suffered a heart bypass in July 2021 after trying his best to clear the mess others had left at the back of his home. Thankfully, he survived while his days of clearing other residents’ rubbish are well and truly over out of sheer principle.

“We just don’t stand a chance,” Wendy added. “[The perpetrators] don’t live like us. It’s just a s*** tip!” Husband John, disgusted with the state of the streets outside his home, commented: “There’s been so many changes of tenants that you can’t put the blame on one particular resident. It’s the landlords, it’s got to be; they’re to blame.

“We don’t see the councillors or the MP; nobody seems bothered about it. We’re the ones suffering. What I also don’t understand is that fire engines are supposed to be able to get around the back of houses. It’s a dangerous hazard.

“The [rubbish] is all the way down, it’s worse in the alleyway down the road as well. It’s been in the news before but we’re still here today talking about it. I don’t know how people get away with it. I’m too old now but I used to say to them, ‘Don’t be dumping that’ and the police don’t want to know. It’s just shocking.

“It’s been two years living next to all of that rubbish and they’re just adding to it, that’s the thing. We’ve had the rat man down here a few weeks ago… I was sitting there and you can see them running across your garden. You should see the size of them. Nobody wants to know.”

‘It smells disgusting’

Speaking previously, James Lauder, whose 84-year-old mum Janet Reeves lives next to the dirty alleyway, said the problem was severe. “There’s rubbish added everyday,” he said. It smells disgusting – but it’s not just an environmental issue. There’s also a fire risk here – I’ve seen propane gas canisters piled in the rubbish. It only takes a small spark to start a fire – the consequences don’t bear thinking about.”

Another local resident, Brenda, who lives at the back of Deykin Avenue on Brantley Road, said: “It’s a rat infested eye-sore. It smells rotten – there’s stray cats everywhere, rats too. It’s been this way for a couple of years. It was only a little pile to begin with. I want to see it cleaned up – it’s not nice living here.”

Now, what was strange was the amount of cats prowling around this part of Aston, with some sleeping on top of the dumped rubbish, no doubt waiting for a rat or mouse to appear to torment. Having managed to get past the mountain of rubbish and walk back to my car, I just felt the instant need to have a quick shower, such was the smell of the waste that was lingering from my 10-minute walk around Deykin Avenue.

Addressing residents’ concerns surrounding dumped rubbish and fly-tipping in alleyways off Deykin Avenue, councillor Mumtaz Hussain said: “The situation has gone from bad to worse over the years. The residents want this cleared up but no one is taking responsibility for it. We’re hitting a brick wall every time we try to do something about it.”

Fellow Aston councillor Ayoub Khan added: “It’s sad for the residents. It’s a health hazard in every respect – if this was to catch fire it would be so destructive. The council seems to ignore these fly tipping locations because they say it’s private land – but residents don’t see why they should be forced to clear it when people are coming to dump from elsewhere. The difficulty we have now is we have a lot of exempt properties in the area and rogue landlords aren’t taking responsibility.”

Birmingham City Council responds to concerns over the state of ‘Britain’s grottiest street’

Birmingham City Council cabinet member for environment, Majid Mahmood, has called on those responsible for the sheer amount of mess to simply do better, and said: “This site is a private, gated alleyway which is ultimately the collective responsibility of the owners and tenants of properties that adjoin it. As a council, our resources are finite and there is a limit to what we can continue to do and we would expect some personal responsibility to be shown, particularly given how difficult it would be for those without legitimate access to dump rubbish there.

“However, as there is asbestos in the dumped waste, we have secured a contractor to remove all the rubbish, though it requires all residents whose property backs onto the alleyway to sign a Good Neighbour Agreement – once this has been done and the site is cleared, we expect residents to keep this private alleyway clean.”