A Margate resident says she is ‘disgusted’ at people dumping their rubbish in her road and being unable to get it cleared.
The Booth Place tenant, who has asked not to be named, says because the road looks like an alley people fly-tip their trash- attracting mice which are now getting in her home.
Items dumped include furniture, industrial ‘laughing gas’ canisters, shopping trolleys and building waste.
The frustrated resident says the issue has been reported numerous times to Thanet council but the authority says it is a private unadopted alleyway and the landowner is responsible for clearance.
A number of new build properties in the alley are registered to Greenfinch Residential Lettings.
The resident, who is now writing to East Thanet MP Polly Billington, said: “There needs to be something done. It is constant. Because it looks like an alleyway people use it like it’s a dump but it’s actually a road.
“It’s attracting mice into my home. I’m unable to use my cupboards and all my food is in air tight containers and my pots and pans are in a big box in the front room. It is making me very depressed.
“I have reported it to the council and environmental health and nothing has been done apart from one time when they came and cleared some of it but not all of it.
“No cameras have been set up which I was told would be done. Prosecutions need to be made. This is uninhabitable and absolutely disgusting.
“The council have also told me that the alleyway behind my house is a private alleyway so it’s not their problem but I think someone needs to take responsibility for this disgusting mess.”
There are more than 800 privately-owned alleys in Thanet. The cleaning or maintenance of private land or unadopted alleyways is the responsibility of the landowner, rather than the council.
The council is only responsible for adopted public roads, footpaths, and alleyways. The authority employs street cleaning teams for public residential areas and will remove fly-tipped waste from public land.
For unadopted alleys the advice is often to work collectively with neighbours to get it cleared by the landlords or form a group to clear themselves.
A Thanet council spokesperson said: “We recorded reports of illegal fly-tipping in The Alleyway, Booth Place, Margate between May 2023 and February 2024.
“As this is a private unadopted alleyway, the landowner is responsible for cleaning and maintaining the area, rather than the council.
“To support the efforts of local residents, in May 2024 we arranged for litter to be cleared from the alleyway in Booth Place through the Community Payback Scheme.
“The council has no authority to install CCTV cameras to monitor private roads or land.”
A director from Greenfinches said they had recently taken over the site and will attend next week to assess the issue.
For information on fly-tipping and to access a ‘report fly tipping’ form go to the TDC website.
UPDATE (January 13). Greenfinches has attended the road and say it is currently clear.
Thanet is quite easily the most disgustingly dirty,littered place I have ever lived.The A299 is the dirtiest road,the beaches has the most dog poo,alleyways are industrially overgrown with weeds,graffiti and litter.The litter bins overflow with litter.The dustbin men drop litter all down the streets. I have walked past 2 large dog poo bins which have been full for a month spilling their exvess into the sea.It really is the Turd capital of the South East.Our Council are useless in their efforts to tackle such concerns.
Rick- why don’t you move then? Or stop driving along the A299.
Fortunately, other people in Ramsgate have a far more positive solution, and actually volunteer to pick up the vast tons of rubbish.
Rubbish most likely brought down by dfls, when they moved here
why should they, when RTC should be out daily doing litter picks and removing dead leaf matter from pavements (which they do ONCE a season). Given that is what you pay council tax for.
I hope my comment has not caused you grief, Rick! I must have been thinking of the sort of thing Manston Airport supporters used to say (on these comment threads) to anti- Manston-airport people.
The council have relied on volunteers to do their cleaning for them, in all honesty the volunteers do a good job, but there should be council staff who do the cleaning as well.
Before they got lazy (remember when they had brooms and shovels, and actually carried dustbins?), binmen used to use these alleys to collect rubbish from tenants: binmen presumably employed by the council. Nowadays, people in one of Thanet’s most deprived areas are supposed to “form a group to clear themselves”, and presumably pay for the rubbish’s removal.
“Fortunately, other people in Ramsgate have a far more positive solution, and actually volunteer to pick up the vast tons of rubbish.”
Make your mind up, Petey.
They’re volunteers. A bit diffrent to forcing people to clear rubbish, when many will be physically incapable of doing so, Nut.
THE COUNCIL SIMPLY DOES NOT GIVE A TOSS – NEVER HAS. THANET HAS ALWAYS BEEN A —- – HOLE.
It is bye far the filthiest area I’ve seen in England or Scotland.
‘Bye far’?
What a terrible excuse for a writer you are.
Just a typo, Beef Curtain.
Not council land, Greenfinch land – therefor, Greenfich responsibility.
I travel pretty extensively and can confidently say that Thanet is the dirtiest place in the UK by a distance. Dog poo and litter everywhere. Streets not swept for years. It’s not a priority for the Council at all.
Just imagine how many litter pickers could have employed with the £690,000 that the Labour Cabinet wasted in chasing the Port Pipe Dream ?
I travel a lot too, and its quite clear you’ve not once stepped foot in Dover, Sittingbourne, Faversham, medway, most of essex, most of south east london, london rd in brighton, salford, leeds, bradford, halifax, hull, peterborough and I can continue, for a long time…if you think Thanet is the dirtiest place.
Faveersham? Much cleaner than here, while in South London EVERY street still gets swept regularly – just like Thanet up until around 20 years ago.
Well if you think Thanet the dirtiest you need to travel because I feel we are a lot cleaner than some parts of London and Birmingham probably a few more places too tbh but I’ve only been these areas and seen with my own eyes rats the size of dogs in brum don’t think I’ve ever seen anywhere bigger although heard London has big rats but never seen but you could always clear it up if you think it’s that bad yourselves or move and stop moaning about Thanet council all the time and no I don’t work for council either before anyone jumps on because I say it how it is you probably don’t agree with me but it’s how I feel Thanet council can’t be blamed all the time when it’s nothing to do with them except put a fine to whom it is for not clearing it up. If anyone got a problem with what I said I really don’t care I just read and laugh 🤣🤣🤣🤣
They’re big cities though. You won’t find seaside resorts in (say) Northumberland or Fife as filthy as Fannit.
Berwick upon tweed had a fair bit of litter and graffiti last time I was up there about six month back. Lets not even touch a little further down the coast in redcar, south shields, tyneside et al.
Yes, Berwick is surprisingly shabby (nice town wall to walk around though).
1: please request a asb case review with your local community safety unit as the council.
2: both your local community safety unit and the environmental team within the council will be obliged under this case review to loo at what needs to get done.
3: a formal complaint if you are not satisfied with the outcome can really move things along.
I can see you’ve done the right things, but now you’ve got to ramp it up with above.
Your local authority can issue whSt us called a community safety warning to the landowner to clear the sites, or face a magistrates court appearance.
Please, seriously look into above.
Have a whip round with your neighbours and get some webcams.
and if you do this, ensure you have the correct signage with owner and operator of the cctv scheme who’s registered with the ico as a data controller. Unless you’re proposing illegal surveillance of a public area?
It isn’t the council who is in the wrong. It’s the filthy people with no standards who live in Margate. Fill the town with the unemployed and the unemployable, the dregs of London and other countries. Give them benefits and lots of social support. Dirty flats with dirty curtains, rubbish in the street, lots of dog mess. Add a few crack towers and it’s why Margate will always be a hole with a thin veneer of regeneration over the top.
That sums up the nub of of thanets problems quite succinctly.
They need to sweep up the sand all over the road down by the clocktower. It’s like an extension of the beach.
Are you sure it’s not an ‘art installation’?
It’s private land, why should it be cleaned at our expense?
Greenfinch made a tonne on the housing market, they should take care of their business.
M.M Rees. Why should people move away because of some scummy people.
It makes you wonder what their houses are like.
Fortunately, some other people care, and do their best to make Ramsgate a better place (shame none of them comment on here).
I love a self awareness fail. Or is this another case where your magical thinking allows your opinions not to apply to you? lolololol
I make Ramsgate a better place whenever I very occasionally visit it.
Absolutely disgusting please somebody think of the children!
The bim operatives dont even use the wheeled bins that we have paid for, they lift the black sacks out of them and carry them to the lorry.
NOT LIKE THIS IN BOGNOR REGIS.
I fail to see how the council is responsible for the public leaving rubbish and dog poo?
Surely it is dogs that leave dog poo?
no, peter, logically its the owners.