Estate clean-up idea backfires after fly-tippers flock to Chesterfield neighbourhood

Two weeks ago, residents of Barrow Hill were told they could use a skip on the Memorial Hall car park to dispose of their rubbish.

However, the skip quickly attracted more waste than it could cope with and items began to spill out on to the tarmac.

On Monday, the skip itself was taken away - but the rest of the trash was just left where it was.

Council bosses have now arranged for the rubbish to be removed and say the clean up has been a success.

Resident Tom Royle, however, says he is unimpressed.

“Ever since it arrived there were white vans coming down dropping stuff off.

“There were half a dozen tyres there, as well as six mattresses - it was a mess.

“The idea wasn’t a bad one but people in the area are now really annoyed.

“After the reputation Barrow Hill used to have things had got better.

“We don’t want it to go back to being the ‘sink estate’ it used to be.”

When the skip’s arrived the community clean up day was advertised on the Memorial Hall’s Facebook page.

A post on the page encouraged residents to ‘get rid of your junk’ and ‘take pride in your area’.

However, residents took to the page to complain about the rubbish they had been left with.

Writing on Facebook, Catherine Parkinson said: “Now that everyone within a ten mile radius has dumped their trash in the club car park.

“When is it going to get cleared away? What an eye sore.”

Councillor Tricia Gilby, Chesterfield Borough Council’s leader said: “We organised a community clean up event in Barrow Hill on Saturday 22 April. This was very successful with lots of people coming along with large items of rubbish to place in the skip, cleaning up their local area and enjoying a meal.

“Since then, people have continued to bring along items to throw away. The skip has now been removed and we have arranged for the rubbish to be cleared away.

“As the event was so positively received, we will consider holding further community clean-up events in the future.

“Until then, people can take along large items of rubbish to the household waste recycling centre on Sheffield Road or contact us to have bulky waste collected.

“More information is available on at www.chesterfield.gov.uk/bulky.”