North Ormesby: Disgruntled resident takes us on fly-tipping tour to highlight problem

It is no secret that North Ormesby has had its fair share of flytipping problems – and despite the hard work of Middlesbrough Council and individuals who clean up the endless stream of incidents, the problem still persists.

The concerned resident, who does not wish to be named, took Local Democracy Reporter, Daniel Hodgson, on a tour of the patch, with the problems he feels so passionately about, very clear to see, street after street.

On a drab and blustery March afternoon, a scattering of bottles, cans and disregarded lip gloss were plain to see, with bulkier items like suitcases, chairs, fridges and TVs left behind in tired-looking back alleys.

The homeowner says there’s a school of thought among disgruntled neighbours that some “dodgy residents” get paid to leave alleygates open to enable flytipping – merely a rumour?

The tour guide says alleygates should be locked – yet many were open and available for exploring, or dumping, it seems.

The issue has left the man feeling so strongly, that most days he is out and about collecting evidence to send to the council, reporting flytipping “at least once a week”. To be balanced, however, on our visit, there were areas, and back alleys, that didn’t look as trashed as others.

The man went on to share hundreds of photos he’d taken and sent to the council over recent months, with overflowing bins and dirty mattresses in alleyways among the snaps in the gallery. He believes the lack of long-term residents, with a “constant churn” of short-term tenants means little pride is being taken in the area.

“You’ve got a great dumping ground, nobody’s ever going to kick off as if you were a long term resident,” he said.

We passed a large dried patch of spilled paint outside a house in Kindersley Street. The man commented that the whole situation makes him feel like the social fabric of the once-thriving community was now “trashed”.

At the end of one street, behind one set of alleygates, council staff were in the midst of a clean-up after the closure of a “huge” cannabis farm. The smell of the class B drug wafted through the air as we chatted.

“We aren’t even the alley team, we deal with fly tips,” said the members of the council’s environmental “Flying Squad”, who explained that the alley team visit on a weekly basis on top of the work that they do.

A worker said he believes those who fly tip have “no respect for the area, because they’re not there for long enough – the landlords are usually miles away.” However, they did add that longer term residents may also be responsible.

“It’s easy to pay someone to just throw it all in an alleyway,” he said. “We make a rod for our own back, because we clean all this and then someone two doors down will say ‘well they got it done for free’.”

Our tour guide said: “These lads that are cleaning it up, this doesn’t come free, this is additional cleaning. This is a lot better now than it was the other day.”

The man says he grumbled at the council on one occasion when an alleyway was left with a pile of dumped rubbish for two weeks – with residents having to live with it, despite paying council tax. But he appreciates the work of the clean-up teams saying: “We’re not criticising them, they couldn’t work any harder. I’m criticising the fact that this keeps on happening.”

Councillor Janet Thompson, executive member for neighbourhoods at Middlesbrough Council, said: “Unfortunately we do have issues with levels of fly-tipping in North Ormesby. We’re working hard to address them and thank people for reporting dumped items. We do need people who live in the area to be responsible and show respect for their community. We spend hours and hours each week cleaning the area and investigate all reports of fly-tipping.

“We are investing in more CCTV and cameras specifically for alleyways. We will also soon introduce new signage for the alleys reminding people to do the right thing. In 2024 the council issued seven high level fines in relation to environmental crime in North Ormesby. We will continue to investigate reports and won’t hesitate to prosecute people where necessary.”

Any fly-tipping or other environmental crime can be reported online via www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/report or by calling 01642 726001.