Fly-tipping on the rise at Walsall garage site
A block of garages has become blighted by fly-tipping.
Residents say garages in Whitehall Lane, also known as Whitehall Road, in Walsall are continually having rubbish dumped around them with whg, which partly owns the site along with Walsall Council, not doing anything about it.
Carol Smith, 54, who rents her garage for £12 a week, said: "I rent a garage off whg and I have done for a number of years as I want my car to be safe. I do not mind paying for this garage but what started happening was people were dropping rubbish there. It has just been getting worse and worse recently.
"The first lot of rubbish was against some fencing of a bungalow. I notified whg and they said they would clear it up no problem. But it was there weeks later and in the meantime a number of great big bag used by builders and filled with bricks and all sorts were dumped more or less on the drive way.
"I went to work one morning and all the rubbish was still there but when I got back in the evening about 20 black bags containing more rubbish had been dumped. The garage next to mine, which is currently unused, is surrounded by rubbish.
"I rang whg again and said people are just going to keep dumping their rubbish there unless something is done and a woman said they would get somebody out to look at it and deal with it. Again nothing was done. I called a third time and they told me they had been notified that the rubbish had been cleared when it clearly had not.
"The other morning a baby rat came running out and that was the final straw for me.
"I did not want to go public over this but it is a situation that people are not happy with and nothing is being done."
Stephen McGregor, whg’s neighbourhood services manager, said the site was being cleared up yesterday and stressed that the land was only partly owned by whg.
He said: “whg have always responded to customer enquires regarding fly tipping at the communal garages in Whitehall Road, Walsall within the 2 day response target. An investigation in February this year concluded this area was part of Walsall Council and whg land following a site visit and the rubbish has since been removed.”
“In other fly tipping incidents at said location whg have responded to and facilitated in the removal of this rubbish, even when this was not part of whg land.
“whg will continue to work with local councillors and whg customers to resolve such issues.
"On 28th June 2017, whg’s Neighbourhood Services Team were on site removing items from both whg and Council land in the continued effort to ensure a safe and clean environment for everyone”.
