\n On behalf of a group of long-term residents living in Salisbury Village, Dil Randhawa said people living on their estate are facing “what has become a serious environmental and public health issue”.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said: “For more than six months, residents have been repeatedly reporting widespread fly-tipping, overflowing bins and a growing rat problem.\n<\/p>\n
\n Residents have documented dozens of incidents of dumped waste. (Image: Dil Randhawa)\n<\/p>\n
\n “Despite ongoing emails to councillors, the borough council and our MP, there has been little sustained improvement.\n<\/p>\n
\n “In just one short walk around the estate, residents have documented dozens of instances of dumped waste.\n<\/p>\n
\n “A major cause of the problem is bins being left out on the streets all week.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Many bins are damaged or have no lids, so rubbish is constantly scattered across pavements and green spaces.\n<\/p>\n
\n “This is attracting large numbers of rats, birds and foxes, and residents are increasingly worried about the health risks, especially for children.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council said it is aware of residents’ concerns and has taken action.\n<\/p>\n
\n A borough council spokesperson said: “As the roads have not been adopted by Hertfordshire County Council, the responsibility for the maintenance of the estate lies with the landowners.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “The landowners have formed a consortium and are working closely with the council to carry out regular inspections, litter picking, road sweeping, and removal of any fly-tipped waste within agreed timescales of notification.\n<\/p>\n
\n “In addition, the council\u2019s waste enforcement contractor regularly patrols the area and issues fixed penalty notices for littering and fly-tipping.”\n<\/p>\n
More<\/p>\n
\n The council says it is arranging ‘a community day of action’ this month, focused on clearing waste, offering advice to residents, and taking enforcement action where necessary.\n<\/p>\n
\n It says it will also be contacting managers of houses in multiple occupation “to remind them of their responsibilities for proper waste storage and disposal”.\n<\/p>\n
\n The council spokesperson added: “Work is also under way to address concerns about rats in the area.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The council has asked Thames Water to carry out sewer baiting and is working with the landowners to ensure they undertake pest control on their land.\n<\/p>\n
\n “These combined measures are helping to improve cleanliness and overall maintenance of the estate.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On behalf of a group of long-term residents living in Salisbury Village, Dil Randhawa said people living on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-455042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}