A Liverpudlian couple who have lived on the same road for forty year have spoken of their despair after their community made headlines this week after an enormous and unsightly mess was pictured scattered across the street.
Ann and Ray Dickson have lived in Woodcroft Road in the Picton area of Wavertree in south Liverpool since they were married four decades ago.
They said the area use to be full of families with a real sense of community but recently homes have been turned into Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) for students and the area has been plagued with rubbish and rodents.
"Lots of people have moved out because of how things have changed, but why should we move? This is our home." Ann told the Liverpool Echo.
"That bin is full and hasn't been emptied for four months. They probably haven't put the right things in it and now the bin men won't take it."
Around half of the properties in this south Liverpool road are now Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs), mainly for students. Ann and Ray said the regular issues they face of loud parties have not been as bad this year, but problems with rubbish and dumping have been worse than ever.
Ann adds: "It's awful, it just feels like some people have no respect for the area. There are rats everywhere, I have never seen so many rats in my life."
Ray, 75, added that it’s not so much the students that are to blame but instead people should start looking to the landlords. He said: “The students get all the blame but the problem is with the landlords too. They need to take responsibility for the area."
With students flooding in and cheap properties on the market, there were huge opportunities for landlords to buy up houses, convert them into multiple-occupancy properties and easily fill them with the young people that were heading for the city.
"Until very recently, landlords would not even be required to seek planning permission in order to take a three-bed family terrace, gut it and squeeze six bedrooms inside.
Ann added that other surrounding areas weren’t facing the same issues.
She said: "Why did all these properties have to be made into HMOs? It hasn't happened in Woolton or Gateacre. It's all about money at the end of the day. We've seen in one of the neighbouring houses, they have split the living room diagonally and made it into two bedrooms."
In recent years the city council has moved to try and address this issue. Last year a new planning direction called Article 4 changed the rules around the creation of HMOs.
The new rules mean in areas like Wavertree and Kensington - where this is a particular issue - any developer wanting to turn a normal dwelling house into a HMO of any size now requires specific planning permission.
Another Woodcroft Road resident, Linda Prinell, shared the same frustrations adding that while she welcomes the council’s actions it’s too little too late. “It really was a lovely area. I knew so many families here, everyone knew each other and got along.
It's nothing like that now. It's changed so much, particularly over the last 15 years. It was ok at first with the students when there was just three in a house. Now we are seeing six, seven or even eight people in each house."
She continued: "I had a group of girls living next door who I got on really well with and were respectful. They even bought me a nice Christmas gift. But the year before this one was an absolute nightmare.
"I was surrounded by loud parties going on until 7am, I couldn't escape. The rubbish and mess being left is still horrendous. The rat problems are terrible."
Speaking about the ongoing problems, Picton ward councillor and city council cabinet member for neighbourhoods, Abdul Qadir said: “Some of the issues relating to students leaving the city for summer have been disappointing to see.
"I know in Picton this week, the ward councillors helped fund the provision of 36 skips to mitigate the impact of the volume of waste generated by students decanting from their accommodation and for local residents to dispose of their unwanted items.
“The city council has been working as part of a multi-agency approach with the universities, councillors and MPs in the affected wards over the last year, and it's vital we all continue to collaborate and communicate.
"As an example the council recently distributed letters and worked with the universities to stress the importance to students of leaving Liverpool and the community they live in in a tidy manner."
He added: "What has become clear is not every landlord appears to take responsibility to help the students dispose of their rubbish properly, either by sharing details of the skips or simply helping them. That is something we are going to address with the universities support.
“On the issue of waste management I’ve instructed officers to review and strengthen plans on prevention and enforcement to ensure we tackle the recent issues more robustly.
"The council will also be talking to the universities to explore how we can improve communications with landlords and students to ensure the impact of this annual summer scenario is lessened.
“The council takes the management of waste extremely seriously, which is why we’ve recently announced a partnership with Keep Britain Tidy and is about to consult on installing a network of subterranean super-bins. The current status quo is not acceptable. Improvements need to be made – and they will.
"But the council cannot do this alone. Waste is an issue that everyone can play a part in – by reducing, reusing and recycling.”
