New drive to clean up Newcastle's West End after back lanes rubbish nightmare

“Nothing is off the table” in a bid to finally end the litter and fly-tipping menace that has long plagued the West End of Newcastle, council bosses say.

Communities in areas like Benwell and Arthur’s Hill have complained for years about overflowing bins, piles of waste strewn across back lanes, and the resulting rat infestations. There have been repeated calls for a renewed show of local pride and for city officials to crack down on those caught bin raiding or abandoning their rubbish, with some offenders known to have driven to parts of the West End specifically targeted as places to dump waste.

Newcastle City Council is now mounting a fresh effort to deal with the disgusting problem, having launched a new back lanes task force, starting with the West Road. Mark Scott has become a familiar face for many locals over the last six months, as the council ‘barrow lad’ patrolling the length of the street to pick up litter.

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The 52-year-old can fill up to 25 bin bags per day full of rubbish and told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the job, which the council officially terms ‘environmental operative’, is “the best I have ever had”. He said: “I think there has definitely been an improvement in the area, it has been really, really positive and everyone has been very welcoming to me.

“I feel like a mini-celebrity here sometimes. At the end of the day, we are trying to do something good for people and everyone is always happy to see me, so it has been great.”

As well as rubbish generated from the West Road’s collection of takeaways and items blowing onto the high street from surrounding back lanes, Mr Scott says that a vast number of disposable vapes and their packaging is the main problem he encounters every day. The big challenge will now be to deliver a sustained improvement to the back lanes themselves

Residents who spoke to the LDRS earlier this summer described witnessing people throwing bags of rubbish from their upstairs windows and being left embarrassed by the “disgusting” sight of discarded food, used mattresses, old furniture, and much more surrounding their homes. Mick Murphy, the city council’s head of local services and waste management, said that local authority bosses needed residents to “play their part and show pride in their neighbourhood”.

He hopes that the same “strength of community” that produced a remarkable display of solidarity in August, when thousands of people took to the streets to take a stand against violence and racism, can be harnessed to help drive a long-term uplift in the state of the area. Speaking from an “immaculate” West Road on Thursday afternoon, he added: “We want to keep the area clean, prevent fly tipping, etc. Mark coming in with the barrow is the latest in that work we are trying to improve the state of the area.

“The reason for doing it was to improve the communication with residents, so that Mark can become a part of the community. This has been a long-standing issue in the West End, but I think we are making great strides now. If you look at the West Road now it is immaculate and we want to build this relationship with residents and businesses so that people don’t want to drop their litter.”

Past measures to try and deal with the West End’s litter crisis have included switching from communal to individual households bins, installing CCTV, and installing bollards to block vehicles accessing some back lanes. Mr Murphy said: “We are not being complacent. We need to keep the West Road in the good state that it is now and work our way down the lanes from top to bottom.

“We are looking at everything, nothing is off the table. If we thought there would be a real benefit to putting bollards in some places then we would consider it – but we would not take that decision lightly, especially around the West Road. The areas where we did that previously were quite quiet, whereas here there are lots of businesses and lots of loading needed.”