Bowling resident sick of fly-tipping and rats off street

Jodi Hirst, 47, of Bowling Hall Road, is calling on the council to take action on people dumping waste on a grassy area off Bowling Hall Road.

The fly-tipping hotspot is beyond a small sideroad, just before the row of terraced houses on the street.

The Telegraph & Argus visited the site on Thursday and saw two fridges, a pile of stone rubbles and other appliances near a shipping container on the grassland.

Ms Hirst has lived in the area all her life and has been in her current home for 16 years but the current issue is taking its toll.

She said: “I’m sick of it, it used to be such a nice area.”

Ms Hirst added: “It’s so upsetting, it really is.

“I’m not being big-headed but I’ve got a nice house, I try to keep the house nice, I’ve got a nice garden and so do the rest of the street and we’re faced with this.”

Two fridges dumped in a fly-tipping hotspot (Image: Telegraph & Argus)

The 47-year-old said she has even spotted rats running round the waste and the infestation began to impact her and her neighbour’s home.

She said: “My neighbour was really stressing, she was going to move because of the rats.”

The Bowling resident had someone from pest control come out twice, while she said her neighbour also had somebody out a few times.

The process cost Ms Hirst £500 and she estimates her neighbour paid out a similar amount, taking the total to four figures.

Rubble in the fly-tipping hotspot (Image: Telegraph & Argus)

Ms Hirst said: “They ruined quite a few things in my cellar.”

She added: “I’ve got a freezer in my cellar, I went down there to put stuff away and it was just sat there staring at me.

“I hate going down there now.”

Ms Hirst said the council has cleaned the area plenty of times but the mess always returns.

There is a waste management site five minutes from the fly-tipping hotspot and Ms Hirst described those dumping their rubbish as “lazy”.

She said: “I don’t know why they’re doing it.

“Just take it to the tip, why can’t they just go to the tip?

“I do, everyone else does, put it in the back of your car and it goes to the tip.”

More rubbish dumped in a shipping container at the fly-tipping hotspot (Image: Telegraph & Argus)

A Bradford Council spokesperson, said: “Fly-tipping blights communities and is simply unacceptable so we do everything we can to crack down on it.

“The waste has now been removed.

“Last year we investigated over 2000 fly-tipping incidents, issued over 50 fixed penalty notices for the offence and seized five vehicles involved in environmental crime."

Two fridges dumped in the fly-tipping hotspot (Image: Telegraph & Argus)