Residents slam Fratton rubbish scheme as '˜more rubbish' lines streets than before

These are just a few of the unsavoury items Fratton residents say have littered their streets since the start of a new rubbish collection scheme.

While the council hoped the 10-week initiative would lead to a widespread increase in recycling, many say it has instead made streets filthier than ever.

In taking a stroll along Newcome Road, one of the area’s longest, the project’s fallout is plain to see.

No less than 24 hours after refuse collectors would have descended upon the street for their weekly round, many items of rubbish still remain – left behind for the next seven days.

Most common is the sight of the black, seagull-proof sacks deployed to local people by Portsmouth City Council.

Each sack can hold three bin bags – the exact number residents are now permitted to throw out each week.

But when this quota is exceeded, knowingly or otherwise, remaining bags of litter become obstructive eyesores until the next collection comes around.

Leslie Stephens, 67 of Newcome Road, knows this only too well.

He said: ‘Over by the phone box [by the turn-off for Guildford Road] there are always black bags.

‘The other day there was a shed that was dumped over there too.

‘The black canvas bags seem to be a waste of time and they’re awful when it’s raining – not nice to drag through your house. ’

His opinion was echoed by Tina Tyrrell who lives on Guildford Road, where residents are being asked to leave out council-provided strengthened bin bags.

She said: ‘Due to these lovely sacks we have, I’m finding as I walk my dogs we’re having to try and manoeuvre around them.

‘They are not weighted down and on a very windy day, you’ll find you are driving over them all through the streets.

‘Dogs are urinating on them, cats are doing their business on them – I would not like to have to carry those through my house.

‘There’s more rubbish in the street now than there was before them.’

However off Trafalgar Place is Fratton Community Centre, arguably one of the locations worst affected by the scheme.

As well as stray rubbish, broken glass now lines the pavement opposite the site – which is regularly used by children and young families.

Manager of the centre, Julie Crook, said: ‘We have bottle banks outside but they’re being used more regularly as a dumping ground for rubbish that hasn’t been collected.’

Her colleague Kay Ackerman, chair of Fratton Community Centre, added: ‘We have voluntarily handed out the new bags to local people for the council.

‘It has been an awful lot of work for our staff but the council has not come back and said ‘we appreciate all your help here’.

‘And they’re not doing anything to respond to complaints we have received from people about all the rubbish.

‘It is always our area that gets picked on – someone at the council really seems to have a down on Fratton.’

Residents taking part in the scheme can make their thoughts known to the council in a survey, available online and collectable from Fratton Community Centre.