Tenant’s rat-infested garden has so much rubbish you can see it on Google Earth

A couple wants action to clear their neighbour’s ‘cesspit’ garden where a mound of trash is visible in satellite imagery.

Angela and Kevin O’Donnell say they have contacted the council and its environmental health team but nothing has been done to clear up the rotting mess, which is visible on Google Earth.

They have witnessed rats scuttling under the fence into their own garden as the rubbish continues to pile up at the property in Birmingham.

The couple, who live with their 10-year-old son in Tile Cross, have repeatedly tried to knock on their neighbour’s door but no one answers.

The property is believed to be a council home but neither they or a fellow neighbour have seen the occupant since a woman who lived there was last sighted between two to three years ago.

Mrs O’Donnell said: ‘The next door neighbour’s garden is absolutely ridden with rubbish. The house is really dilapidated as well, it’s not nice to live next door to. The rubbish is piled up against the gate and we get rats going under the fence into our garden all the time.

‘We’ve also got birds and seagulls coming down and picking open the black bags. They pick up the odd morsel or nappy and drop it into our home. We’ve got a little boy so it’s not nice at all.

‘The trash is waist-high, even more so in parts. It’s a cesspit really and it’s just going to get worse and worse and worse, it’s going to end up looking like the local tip. We have phoned the council numerous times, phoned pest control and our MP, but there’s just been no movement.’

Satellite imagery on Google Earth shows the trash spilling out into the back garden of the maisonette, where the refuse is waist-high in one corner.

The mapping from 2022 shows the black bin bags and other mess in the yard, which is sandwiched inbetween homes in the otherwise kempt street.

The debris includes empty beer cans, discarded plastic bags filled with rubbish and a child’s buggy and scooter.

Mrs O’Donnell, 45, a mortgage advisor, believes a council tenant who she has never seen is supposed to be living next to their home, which they purchased from the local authority.

‘The glass in the door to the back garden has been bashed in and replaced with cardboard,’ she said. ‘It looks shocking inside as well.

‘When I phone up the council and give them the reference number I’m passed between departments and then cut off half way through, so I have to go back through the process.

‘When an environmental health officer phoned me a while ago he was trying to look on Google Earth to where the house would be, whether he could see the rubbish or not I don’t know.

‘There’s another neighbour who has also made a complaint and had absolutely no comeback at all.

‘I’m not angry or being nasty but they have asked me if I’m prepared to go to court and I said absolutely, because it needs sorting out.’

Shaun Fishley, another neighbour, has found dead rats outside his front door and also witnessed the trash continue to pile up.

Mr Fishley, 58, retired, said: ‘There are rats living in there and there’s a fox that comes and dosses there as well.

‘It’s been that way for about two to three years. What amazes me is that there was a woman living there who no longer lives there, I don’t know what happened to her, but the property is still being used. There has been one or two people come and go but I’ve never seen anyone.

‘I have found a dead rat right outside my doorstep, I couldn’t prove it came from the garden, it could have been left by a fox from somewhere else, but the rubbish is still continuing to accumulate.’

Birmingham City Council has a policy stating: ‘We will investigate dumped rubbish and may serve a legal notice to landowners to clear rubbish that attracts or harbours vermin.’

In a statement, the council said: ‘Birmingham City Council apologises for the distress this situation has caused.

‘We have been working with the tenant to help them clear their garden as we are aware of the impact this is having on neighbours.

‘As part of this ongoing support we will be clearing the garden and working with the tenant to ensure that it remains clear.’

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