Portsmouth fly-tipping site next to North End residents' gardens is being cleared and fenced off

A huge amount of rubbish – ranging from broken sofas to bags of rumble – has been piling up in the private car parking area off London Road, near the junction with Kingston Crescent, over the last six months.

Residents told The News that the eyesore left them feeling like they were living next to a tip, and that they had to contend with mice, foxes, and swarms of flies drawn to the site.

Now – after repeated messages from Portsmouth City Council – the owner has contracted clearance teams to remove the majority of the rubbish, and fencing on concrete bases has been put up to deter further fly-tipping.

It follows a council warning that a lack of action would result in the local authority clearing the site and then billing the owner for the costs, according to Councillor Lee Hunt.

Cllr Hunt, who represents Nelson ward which includes the area around the car park, said: 'The officers are in the process of preparing a report.

'Hopefully there will be a long-term solution to it. There are no plans for it at the moment and it will be up to the owner.

'Residents seem satisfied with the effort, which is good. I will certainly keep an eye on it.’

While the majority of the rubbish on the site has been cleared, there remain several broken benches and pile of cardboard boxes and assorted waste yet to be removed.

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Cllr Hunt believes that the North End car parking site and similar pockets of land across the city would benefit from redevelopment, helping the local authority meet its housing targets.

He said: 'We've got to put (more) homes in the city somewhere thanks to the government.

‘So I assume we’ll be looking at pockets of land and seeing if we can persuade people to put in planning applications and put them to a different type of use.

‘But it’s up to the landowners.’

Earlier this year, data revealed that incidents of fly-tipping had increased by 22 per cent across The News’ patch over the last seven years, costing councils more than £1.2m to clear up.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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