Brit holiday hotspot with ‘best beaches in UK’ overrun with rats and rubbish – putting summer breaks at risk
RESIDENTS in one of the Britain’s most popular seaside holiday resorts have been left ‘depressed’ and angry after piles of rancid rubbish sacks piled up on the streets.
Homeowners in Newquay – renowned for its endless sandy beaches, perfect surfing conditions and lively nightlife – say “dead rats” are now a common find among the rotting rubbish and seagulls are attacking sacks left behind by binmen, after a new ruling from the local council.
Two million people will visit the Cornish seaside town in a typical year, but the 24,000 permanent residents are kicking up a stink over the controversial decision by Cornwall Council to move bin collections from weekly to fortnightly, turning sections of the town into a ‘bin bag city’.
Valerie Robertson, 44, who has lived in Newquay for 30 years, described the new waste regime as “the worst change the council has ever made to here”.
The ruling effectively limits each household to one and half bags of rubbish per week regardless of how many occupants, leading bags littering the streets and a spike in fly-tipping.
Valerie added: “It’s got so much worse since they changed the rules, we are constantly getting dead rats. We try to keep it as tidy as we can, but seagulls get in and there’s rubbish all up the street.
“We call our street bin alley now. It stinks and it’s horrible. I go the long way around to avoid passing the bins at the end of our street.
“With the summer coming it’s going to get worse, it’s an absolute joke. There’s constantly rubbish on the street so things blow into my house if I don’t keep the door shut.”
Mountains of trash
Residents trying to dispose of their household rubbish at the tip are forced to endure huge queues at the tip.
Angry locals complain of waiting 45 minutes to drop their rubbish off, while others have shared photos on social media of rubbish bags fly tipped around town by those not willing to face the queues.
One even claimed “ridiculous” waiting times are caused by overzealous staff ordering them to open their black sacks to check no recycling was being thrown away.
Across from the Great Western Beach, The Sun found families exasperated by the piles of rubbish at the end of their street.
They told of fears the warm summer weather and increase in tourists would create worse conditions, including foul smells and vermin.
We are constantly getting dead rats. We try to keep it as tidy as we can, but seagulls get in and there’s rubbish all up the street
Valerie Robertson
Handyman Chris Clayton-Jones, 48, said: “We are having to hold waste back now because in a week you still fill your bin up then you have overflow and seagulls get to the bins.
“It’s not pleasant now and when the warm weather comes it’s only going to get worse. The smell comes right into the flats, it’s pretty depressing really.
“Also because they are taking the bags out of the bin which means if there is anything split they leave the whole bin behind.
“This is a high tourist area, and they don’t know when bin day is, so they will put bin bags out during the week too.
“We need to at least go back to weekly bin collections for general household waste.”
Others said they expected to see more fly-tipping because of the new bin rules.
But some took to social media to claim even fortnightly collections aren’t taking place and when they do get collected the workers will only take wheelie bins that are not overflowing.
It has also caused tension with local bars and restaurants, which say residents are dumping household rubbish in their bins.
Tom Mackins, 34, who is a head chef in Newquay, said: “We have had to put padlocks on our commercial bins. They get emptied by private contractors on Monday but by Wednesday which is the start of our week they are full.
UK Fly Tipping Statistics
For the year 2022 to 2023 there were 1.08 million fly-tipping incidents across the UK. While this figure is down 1 per cent on the previous year, dumping rubbish is still a huge issue. Clearing up the waste cost local councils £13.2 million last year. Here are some facts about fly tipping in the UK.
- Household waste accounted for 60 per cent of the incidents.
- Highways, meaning pavements and roads, were the most common location for waste to be illegal dumped.
- Councils carried 532,000 enforcement actions against fly tippers, which is 24,000 actions than the previous year.
- Last year, 69,000 fixed penalty notices were given out for incidents, which are the second most common way of dealing with offenders.
- In the same period, 59,000 warning letters were sent out.
- The average fine handed out in court has increased to £526 from £466.
- Small van loads are the most common size of illegal dumped rubbish, and the second most common being a car boot load.
- London had the highest number of fly tipping incidents per 1,000 people.
- 34 offenders were handed community service orders.
- 21 jail terms were given to offenders
“We find it at home as well, the change in the collections is beyond a joke. We get the need to recycle but if the job’s not being done and we end up with situations like this, the seagulls and wild animals tear the bags apart.
“A lot of customers park on the street and they have to walk past this, it doesn’t do us justice and it doesn’t give us a good image.
“We can’t pay our staff every week to come and clean up. We pay a couple of hundred pounds per week to have our bins collected.
“The council needs to do more and there needs to be more waste collections.”
Damage caused to property
Cornwall Council intends to roll out the fortnightly collection across the rest of the county in the next two years. Newquay and Mid-Cornwall are the test grounds for the scheme.
Any additional rubbish created by households should be taken to the tip.
But even the roll-out of the new bins angered locals with at least one refusing to use his after it was left on his sloping drive on a windy day and smashed into his brand-new Mini, causing £200 worth of damage.
Jason Billings, 54, a site supervisor, sent CCTV footage to the council but was told they wouldn’t pay for the two dents caused by the bin.
He said: “They delivered the bins here early one morning, and it was blowing a gale. They left mine right by the car and mine blew over and hit the back of the car, which was only a month old. I took a photo and sent it to the council but they just chucked it out.
“I also asked them if I could not use the wheelie bin because I’m on an incline and use my normal council bag, but they refused that. Now I leave it up the side of the house and take the rubbish to the dump myself.
“You see black bags everywhere, they are all over the place. Queues at the recycling centre have got really bad lately because people would rather take waste up there. It’s carnage trying to get through.
“What am I getting for my £210 per month council tax? I don’t know.”
A Cornwall Council spokesman said: “In the first two months of the rollout in mid-Cornwall we collected 800 tonnes of food waste and the proportion of recycling we are picking up in the area has gone up from 40 per cent of all waste collected to 55 per cent.
“Most local authorities collect rubbish fortnightly, and we anticipate that residents will soon adjust to the new service. Limiting the amount of rubbish we collect to what fits in your wheelie bin or sack encourages everyone to recycle.
“It is a legal requirement for local authorities to collect food waste separately from rubbish. Help and advice on how to recycle and what goes in your new food waste bin can be found on the Cornwall Council website.”
