"All people want is a bit of respect."
These are the words of Ngunan Adamu, who has lived in her home in Woodcroft Road, Wavertree for 34 years.
It's an area that once had a great community spirt, she says, but that spirit has since been replaced by overflowing bins and thoughtless neighbours.
Woodcroft is one of a number of streets lying between Lawrence Road and Smithdown Road that are now dominated by Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMO), each of which can hold as many as eight people - mainly students - at a time.
While students have long been a part of the mix of this community, the proliferation of HMOs means they are now dominant and when the end of term comes, it can bring chaos and huge amounts of mess to the area.
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Images and videos have been shared this week across social media showing students dumping items in the street, alleyways that resemble bomb sites and hoards of overflowing bins left outside houses that have been vacated by those heading home for the summer.
By Tuesday, Liverpool City Council's waste collection teams had done an admiral job of tackling a large proportion of what had been so thoughtlessly scattered around the Wavertree streets but they couldn't get to everything.
When we visited, an alleyway close to Woodcroft Road's junction with Lawrence Road remained in a horrific state. A huge cracked mirror was lying near to the front of the alley, with enormous piles of discarded rubbish and household items behind it. Pans, pots, mugs, clothing, leftover food and other various items all strewn recklessly across the floor.
For those left behind to live amongst such mess once the students have packed up and gone home, there is anger and sadness at what has become of their community.
"There are hardly any families living around here anymore," says Ngunan, who is an entrepreneur as well as a presenter and producer for Radio Merseyside. "There are probably about six families in this street now."
"I have people crying to me all the time about the state of the area. It used to be a really vibrant area but it feels like we've lost that community feeling.
She says that while naturally the students who so callously leave the mess are to blame, there are others at fault too.
"The parents don't help actually, You will see them coming to pick them up at the end of term and they will just leave things on the street as well. They don't set a good example."
There is also a lot of local ire directed at the out-of-town landlords who have gutted so many of the former family homes to turn them into HMOs to cram as many of the students into - and the lack of responsibility they take for the community.
"They should be paying for skips for the students to put all the rubbish in," adds Ngunan, "But 90% of these developers don't live in this city, they live in London or abroad, so they just don't care what happens here."
79-year-old George Evans, who has lived in Woodcroft Road for more than half a century, he agrees that the parents coming to pick up the students to help them move out for the summer should set a better example.
"I think the parents can be as bad as the students," he says.. "When they were moving last week, a mother came to help her daughter and anything they couldn't quite fit into the car they just chucked it on the street. So the kids have got no chance."
He also wants to point some blame at the city council for how his street has been allowed to change. adding: "Liverpool Council should never have allowed this. These were family homes, developers have ripped all the insides out, made little box rooms - thank you very much."
In the nearby Blantyre Road, Ashley Hargreaves is at breaking point. He and his partner bought their first home in the street three years ago but have faced a constant battle ever since to try and keep the area clean.
"The students in the area constantly leave litter all over the area and overfill the bins, it means rubbish is always all over the pavement and clogging the gutters," he explains.
He says this is a problem all-year-round but it comes to a grim climax at the end of the summer term, adding: "The level of rubbish this week is something I have never seen before.
"They have left clothes and all other household items on the street and then the cleaners who are hired to clean the properties left their own rubbish in the street as well. This has attracted rats and seagulls to the area, it sounds like the seaside here."
Ashley says he has raised around a dozen complaints with the city council and has helped to arrange community meetings with local councillors, but feels not enough is being done. He has also taken matters into his own hands at times.
"I now personally sweep the street on a weekly basis to try and keep it at a reasonable level," he explains. "I've also attempted to speak to some of the students on my road about this but have been verbally abused and had doors slammed in my face when raising these issues. They just don't care and there are no ramifications for them or the landlords involved.
"The bin collectors came on Monday and I thanked them for clearing some of the litter away, they told me how sorry they felt for the residents who have to live with this."
The area's Member of Parliament, Paula Barker, says these issues have taken up a considerable amount of her time during the past three years since her election.
In a statement, she said: "It is simply not good enough. Whilst there are other areas of the city which are blighted by this type of anti-social behaviour, nowhere seems to be quite as bad as parts of Wavertree, including the streets surrounding Lawrence Road and Smithdown Road. I will not accept that my constituents should live in filth.
"It is abundantly clear that the council need to take significant enforcement action against some landlords and those minority of residents who have no respect for the area. A large part of this has been due to the proliferation of HMOs in the area, without the appropriate infrastructure being put in place to manage the extra demands on services.
"Over a prolonged period of time, residents have patiently reported these issues using the Council’s processes and I have been raising them consistently and repeatedly as their Member of Parliament. My constituents, many of whom are busy with their own jobs and families, are at the end of their tether and I can completely understand why. There is a strong sense of community in the area and the people who live there should be able to have pride in where they live.
"There needs to be sustained, targeted action in these areas to enforce the powers which the Council already have. I also believe that the council need to urgently review their waste management strategy in the area and urgently consider how to increase waste management capacity."
Ms Barker said she has spoken with Liverpool Council leader Liam Robinson and is confident he understands the need to urgently get a 'proper grip' of the problem, with newly elected ward councillors 'doing their best' to report the ongoing issues.
For his part, Cllr Robinson said he 'completely understands and appreciatess' the frustration these issues are causing within communities.
He added: "The challenge is that landlords ask students to leave their houses empty when they are moving out, prompting this behaviour.
"We have been working collaboratively with our partners to encourage students and landlords to leave alleyways clear of rubbish and to recycle or reuse items rather than throwing them out through the Leave Liverpool Tidy campaign.
"Our work has included communications through universities, students and landlord groups, door knocking and posts on social media. Liverpool Streetscene Services Limited (LSSL) are deploying more resources in the affected areas, including additional waste collections and deployment of skips, and I appreciate the efforts of all staff involved.
"Our teams have also been out on the streets in student areas to identify problems and get alleyways and pavements cleared. I have asked our teams to look at what more we can do to get ahead of this issue, and what enforcement action we can take as a deterrent.
"I am acutely aware that we have work to do on the cleanliness of the entire city, and it is one of the issues that the cabinet and I are determined to tackle. Our new neighbourhood model of working will help with this.”
While the council's commitments may be cautiously welcomed by those living on the streets of Wavertree, it will take a while for them to believe real change will come - and for some the damage has already been done.
"It's horrible," says a disconsolate Ngunan as she looks around the street she has always called home. "People around here deserve respect. They just want to live in a clean street. It's really sad."
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