Sea of rubbish nearly swallows up building in one of worst ever fly-tipping cases

A quiet North London cul-de-sac has been rocked by one of the worst cases of fly-tipping ever seen.

Fuming residents in flats around New Southgate spent the last week watching hundreds of trucks packed sky-high with rubbish pull into the quiet street to dump their loads on the site of an abandoned care home.

Forty-five new homes were set to be built on the empty site, but developers will now have to shell out over £10,000 to remove the sea of rubbish before they can begin work.

In the meantime, security guards with dogs have been assigned to watch the site 24/7 in order to prevent any further damage.

Some residents in nearby flats have become paralysed with fear and are furious at the ‘disgusting’ sight outside their windows. 

Others have vowed to escape completely before a wave of pests and flies hits the area in the summer heat.

Locals claim to have seen men approach the gates to the site with bolt cutters and illegally gain access just before 6pm on Tuesday, April 11. Multiple residents also say they called the police but were reportedly told they would need video evidence to make any arrests.

A caravan was then driven onto the site, making it a designated campsite where children stayed overnight, while the tidal wave of rubbish was dumped by hundreds of trucks in just four days as helpless tenants watched the mounting cesspit.

Some residents said they challenged the ‘cowboys’ but received abuse, while others said the dumpers posed as builders to lie about what they were doing.

A tenant in a nearby block – who spoke on the condition of anonymity – said: ‘I saw them changing licence plates and wearing balaclavas. Those guys, honest to God the rent you pay in this place to live next to that.

‘They put our rent up eight per cent to live right in front of that place. Every time I tried to take a photo of their plates they started with threatening behaviour.’

Another resident remembered the moment it began. He said: ‘Two guys – about 35 – went up to the gate and snapped it open with bolt cutters. The police were there in five minutes but they could not do anything.

‘They said if you don’t have a video we can’t do anything. They put a caravan in and claimed it as a campsite so the police stayed off their tail.

‘There were about 70 trucks a day and that’s speaking conservatively. I once saw 20 trucks in two hours. They filled it up f**king quick. They filled up the whole space Friday, smashing the windows and taking anything they could. They take rubbish there for a discounted rate.’

His account was backed up by multiple other residents who also saw two police cars outside the site on Saturday, April 15, once the alleged fly-tippers had left. The ‘ringleader’ then reportedly returned to collect a Mitsubishi off-roader which had been left behind with police still in the area.

Once the ‘ringleader’ had finally left, the unnamed resident then went onto the site to assess the damage where he found it already overrun with pests. ‘It’s full of rats. We went in to have a look around and it’s just full of flies,’ he added.

‘It’s been stressful and concerning,’ he told MyLondon. ‘I was worried about it being a campsite. When it was happening it took over my job. I work from home and every day I was phoning the police, the landlord, and security. 

‘Taking photos was like having a full-time job. I was also worried when I was leaving the house.’

Saeed Jamli, 42, lives in a maisonette overlooking the site and first noticed the dumpsters arriving in the middle of the night. He said: ‘Now we are thinking about the rubbish and rats and mice. It’s not a good view.’

Courier Hamed Khaki Sanati, 38, added: ‘I don’t know what is going on, now it’s everywhere. It’s very ugly. It’s not summer yet and you can imagine what’s going to happen soon, just the rats.’

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