Redcar residents battle recurring back-alley fly-tipping
- Melissa Wade
- Feb 13
- 2 min read
Redcar’s Lord Street residents are battling an ongoing issue with fly-tipping in their back alleys.
These narrow passages, originally designed in the Victorian era for waste and service access, were once vital for the smooth functioning of urban life.
However, they have become magnets for waste dumping, much to the dismay of those living nearby.
One resident expresses their increasing frustration as discarded furniture and household waste continues to pile up, creating an unattractive area to live in and to walk by.
“It’s annoying and frustrating,” says Sarah Williams, who lives on Charlotte Street. “We’ve had this problem for years, with the area being the one of the main spots for fly-tipping.”
“It is much better than it used to be though, the gates have helped decrease some of the dumping but it’s the area outside the gates that is still being piled up with waste.”
“I think it does tend to be the people who live in area who are dumping the waste, they just don’t seem to care about the state of the place.”
On some occasions there have even been sightings of rats, with multiple people having seen them near some of the waste.
However, over the years, there have been many changes to the area to help combat the fly-tipping.
Back alleys on Lord Street have been a focus for community improvement projects and council initiatives, including the council implementing Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) where they installed gated alleyways in 2021 to reduce anti-social behaviour, with some residents actively transforming these spaces into green, communal areas.
Alley gates are lockable gates installed at the ends of alley ways to restrict public access and help prevent crime, such as burglary and anti-social behaviour, in residential areas.
They allow residents with keys to access the rear of their homes while keeping others out, and the community often takes ownership of the alley ways through maintenance and other improvements.
However, with some residents not following these protocols, fly-tipping has continued to be a recurring problem for people in the area with not enough being done to stop it.
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