Leaders at Liverpool Town Hall and Westminster have come together to push for more to be done to tackle excessive waste in their communities.
Anger has grown as piles of rubbish and fly-tipping have continued to grow as students head home after their terms at the city’s universities. Disgusting images have shown rising piles of cast offs and rubbish across different wards in the city and in a bid to clamp down on the overflowing bins, councillors and a Labour MP have called for stronger action.
A motion has been submitted to Liverpool Council by members in city centre, Greenbank and Picton wards by five councillors calling on the local authority to hold landlords responsible for the mess left behind by students. The motion details how residents in their respective wards are “disgusted and distressed by horrendous piles of clothes, food, kitchen utensils and personal items dumped onto their streets and in alleyways, with over-flowing and contaminated bins left strewn around, making some streets impassable”.
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The councillors’ motion also highlights how staff and residents have to spend “a ludicrous amount of time” reporting, cleaning, and dealing with the mess each summer at public expense. The “disgusting mess” makes part of the city “look appalling” the motion read.
As a result, the councillors have called on their colleague to insist landlords who own the student properties become fully responsible for the items from the homes and “what is effectively business waste cannot be left on streets or alleys”. Licences for landlords should be tightened, according to the motion, requiring the landlords to dispose of the waste once the property is vacated.
Should “environmentally criminal behaviour” continue, landlords responsible should be stripped of their licences, the councillors said. Following a letter from Liverpool Wavertree MP Paula Barker, the local authority’s neighbourhoods committee has asked cabinet member, Cllr Abdul Qadir, to produce a report on the issues surrounding houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) in Picton, with a view to debating the matters at its next meeting in August.
Ms Barker’s letter said: “Since my election in December 2019, I have spent a considerable amount of time dealing with complaints from residents in Picton ward, and in particular the streets which run between Lawrence Road and Smithdown Road, regarding the impact which sustained HMO development has had on them and also the related issues around waste management, street and alley cleanliness and anti-social behaviour which stem from having such a large concentration of HMOs in one area.” Ms Barker said residents action groups had “persistently” raised these issues with the council but “despite our best efforts, there is little evidence of positive change in the ward, and quite frankly, residents are being asked to put up with conditions in their area which fall short of the ‘cleaner, greener, vibrant’ community which the council is aiming to achieve via the Liverpool Local Plan”.
The motion put forward by the councillors will be debated by all members of Liverpool Council at the Town Hall next week.
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