Our town is so filthy you can see the state of it on Google Maps, say families living in ‘squalor’ neighborhood
- Photos show Newtown, north of Birmingham city centre, covered in litter
A neglected town in Birmingham is so filthy that piles of litter can be seen on Google Maps, according to families living in the ‘squalor’ neighbourhood.
Photographs of Newtown, just north of the city centre, show plastic bags, crisp packets and takeaway boxes strewn across roads and pavements while bins overflow.
Matt Bond, who has lived in the town with his family of six for 20 years, fears nothing will be done as he says people are dumping unwanted litter all over the place, according to Birmingham Live.
Expressing his frustration at a local ward meeting, Mr Bond said: ‘I don’t know if you’ve ever gone on Google Maps and Googled our area from an aerial point of view. It looks like a waste ground, it really does.
‘It’s absolutely disgusting. It’s embarrassing.’
Images from Google Maps around Newtown, just north of the city centre, show plastic bags, crisp packets and takeaway boxes strewn across roads and pavements
One local resident, Matt Bond, said: ‘It’s absolutely disgusting. It’s embarrassing’
Another resident, Valerie Simpson, said: ‘We live here and we live around this squalor’
He added: ‘People are dumping stuff down the alleyways and all sorts. What is in these people’s minds?’
Mr Bond claimed the extent of rubbish left lying around is devaluing his property, adding: ‘This is the frustration. It’s communication. We’ve been there for 20-odd years and still we can’t get nothing done.’
Another resident, Valerie Simpson, said: ‘They’re not even emptying the bins, they’re just overflowing. The bins aren’t being emptied at all. There’s rubbish everywhere.’
She added: ‘We live here and we live around this squalor. There’s fly tipping everywhere and it’s the first thing I speak about every month at the meetings and nothing is happening about it.
‘Yet we’ve got money here and we can’t put that to good use? We want the place tidied up.’
A photograph shows a bin overflowing with black rubbish bags on a busy street in the city
READ MORE: Fury as students turn city into a rubbish tip: Lazy undergraduate fly-tippers dump end-of term waste on the streets leaving behind desk chairs, mattresses and food waste as they move out and head home for the summer
In response to the residents’ complaints about the litter and fly-tipping in Newtown, councillor Ziaul Islam said: ‘I am aware of all the problems surrounding fly-tipping and the rubbish on our streets and I am working with the authorities to put a stop to it.
‘I am doing my best but it’s the same across several parts of the city.
‘I am also fighting to restore the community centre and I will be in dialogue with the council leader, John Cotton.’
Last year, one angry resident wrote on Twitter: ‘This is our street today! ALMA STREET B19 2RL, sending a machine down the street won’t clear it, it needs to be done on foot and you also need to take action on NEWTOWN SHOPPING CENTRE, 95% of the rubbish comes from them!’
Within a string of tweets, the local added: ‘I am forever fighting to get our street clean and tidy.’
MailOnline has contacted Birmingham City Council for comment.
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