LORRAINE - A ONE WOMAN ARMY AGAINST FLY TIPPING IN ECCLES

Walking through the backstreets of Salford can often be a depressing slog, with rubbish seemingly dumped everywhere, bin bags ripped open, bottles, cans, furniture even the occasional bed just casually dumped.

However in Eccles we a one woman army dedicated to fighting the flytippers, I give you Lorraine Naylor a Grandmother of nine children who is on a campaign to clean up her local area.

We met Lorraine on a wet Sunday morning in Patricroft as she showed us around the sites most affected by this blight and what we saw can only be described as disgusting.

Lorraine told us:

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"I love Eccles, I was born and brought up here, but it is breaking my heart to see the place go down the drain.

"I go out whenever the weather is fine armed with bin bags to pick up the rubbish other people have dumped,, some days I can fill 20 bin bags, it's that bad.

"The public footpath that runs alongside the railway lines from St Andrews Church to Patricroft Station is disgusting, the number of times I have cleared up the mess, only to return a week later and find it is just as bad, what is wrong with these people?

"I have called Salford Council many, many times to report the fly-tipping only to be passed from pillar to post, they did tell me that I should contact the rail companies about the rubbish because that footpath has nothing to do with them, which I find hard to believe.

"They must be sick of me but I have told them I am not going away and will continue to highlight this problem until they do something about it.

"I do feel sorry for the residents of the flats near Nelson Street were the rubbish is piling up, there is simply not enough communal bins for them, it's obvious, the flats were designed for single people but now families are living in them, you can't blame them, they need more bins or more collections." 

 

We did take photos of the rubbish and hopefully local councillors can help out, surely it's within their realms to sort this mess out or at least work on behalf of the residents to sort the problem with the rail company that apparently owns the land?

Lorraine is appealing for volunteers to help her on her crusade to make the area a cleaner, healthier place to live.

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"I would love it if say, 10 people or more could meet me one Sunday morning and we could go out and tackle this problem, I know we shouldn't have to do this but I want to restore some pride back into our community"

 

How about it? perhaps a few councillors and members of the community could tag along along and help out?

Salford Council has been fighting an uphill battle with fly-tippers and rubbish dumpers who are blighting this city and causing unnecessary misery to residents. It seems that no sooner have the council removed rubbish a new pile turns up in its stead. 

Our own Karl Davison has been documenting the problem for over five years now and in that time he has come to have a unique perspective and understanding of the issue. 

Karl said:

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"It is pretty easy to just blame the council but in all honesty the truth of the matter is that much of this problem simply comes down to the fact that a small section of society feels that it doesn't need to comply with the rules.

"Much of the stuff I spot dumped on the streets could easily have been sorted and put into the correct bins, thus cutting down on the amount of waste that is too often ending up in black bins as well as in some cases upon our streets.

"There are instances in which better solutions are required and in some cases as in the photo below, some communal bins are just inadequate to serve the homes that rely on them. However, adding more bins will not stop people simply bagging up mixed rubbish in a black bag and dumping it out for the council to clear away. What is needed is a change in attitude of those causing the problem and that will sadly only come if the council gets tough with them and hands out fines.

"Both the council and councillors are in a situation in which it has become an unending task and I feel that the public anger would be better suited at being aimed at those actually causing the problem and not those tasked with cleaning it up.

"Yes it is true that the three week black bin collections have had an impact but when recycling is done properly it works- but all it takes is a few households not to comply in each area and it has a massive impact on us all."

 

On Nelson Street we found that much of the dumped rubbish could have easily been sorted and put into the correct bin, sadly it seems that some would sooner let the council deal with the problem, this has a direct impact and costs the council hundreds of thousands of pounds to continually deal with. Money that comes out of tax payers pockets, that said, even taking that into account, the bins that are there are totally inadequate for the homes in the area and that in our opinion needs to be addressed.

In recognition of Lorraine's commitment to her neighbourhood we have awarded her one of our Community Champion Award. It is people like her who make a positive impact and they should be recognised for trying to make out communities better, cleaner and safer.