A blitz to clear hundreds of tonnes of stinking rubbish has been welcomed by residents whose lives were blighted by fly-tipping.

The major clean-up behind Woodview Terrace on North Avenue, Manningham, has brought new hope to a street once dubbed Death Row.

A digger and wagons carrying two enormous skips rolled on to North Avenue yesterday to shift a rat-infested mountain of illegally dumped waste.

The mound, including old fridges, beds and TVs, was so high that children were scrambling on it to get over a wall on to the main Bradford to Shipley railway line.

The clean-up was a one-off operation funded by Bradford Council to give the area a fresh start.

Amjad Ishaq, council environmental task force co-ordinator, said the unadopted side road had become a magnet for fly-tippers.

"We're trying to restore residents' pride and bring the community together. It is making a real difference to people's lives," he said.

Mr Ishaq said the operation was part of the council's new £4m Environmental Task Force, funded over two years to work in 13 areas of the city.

Environmental wardens will educate people on how to dispose of their rubbish and new "clean teams" will respond rapidly to fly-tipping, graffiti and weed problems.

Fifty major clean-ups are planned in the city over the next two years.

Asad Bahadur, community development officer for nearby Challenge College, said rats from the rubbish tip were coming into people's homes.

He said: "This is a breath of fresh air. Cars can now get round the back of the houses and kids can play on their bikes.

"Hopefully, residents can now pull together to make sure this doesn't happen again."

He told how he had seen children climbing over the rubbish on to the railway.

"They lay down on the track while a train passed on the other side," he said.

Mr Bahadur said that the street of eight-bedroom Lister homes became run down in the 1970s. It was then a haven for drug addicts and prostitutes and was dubbed Death Row because of the high number of suspicious deaths.

Resident Amjad Khan said it was the third major clear-up of illegal rubbish at the site.

"There's never going to be a cure but it's nice to see it all gone," he said.

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