Moseley residents fear fire from a year of dumped rubbish

Residents of a road in Moseley say they have struggled to sleep for fear that rubbish left outside empty houses for more than a year could be set alight.

Four yellow skips, red sofas, old mattresses and bin bags have been left on Park Road since three houses in multiple occupation were shut down, the BBC reported.

"It's a fire risk"

Ben Hallam, a local resident and community activist, said: "It's a fire risk. All it takes is a cigarette or something to go there, and the whole place could go up. This is all flammable material in the skips and sofas."

"As a resident I do feel quite scared with this at the moment. If I hear teenagers or children around at night, which they are, it is a big worry. We have lots of elderly people on this road as well that are scared."

Alison Kirkpatrick, another resident, called it "disgusting and unhygienic", and said there had been more rats in the area. "It's a blight on the road," she said.

Some rubbish cleared

On the day the BBC contacted Birmingham City Council, the fly-tipping was cleared from the pavement, and the council said it had removed rubbish from the area before. But the four full skips remain on the private land, and residents say they have tried for months to reach the owner without success.

The council said: "We are continuing to try to identify the fly-tippers responsible and are committed to prosecuting fly-tippers whenever possible. We encourage residents to provide reports and evidence for us to do so."

The owner's response

Planning permission to turn the three buildings into 14 self-contained flats was applied for in July 2025 and approved in June this year. The landowner told the BBC it was a small family-owned company and called the waste "unfortunate".

"The whole planning process for this property has taken over 18 months; it is of no benefit to us to have the property empty," it said, adding that contractors had been engaged and would complete the work within 12 months.

Formal notice possible

Councillor Izzy Knowles, a Liberal Democrat member for Moseley, said: "The owner should never have let it get into that state in the first place. It's a beautiful property, they need to keep an eye on it."

She said the council's empty property officer had written to the owners asking them to clear the site, and that if nothing happened within 28 days a formal notice would follow.

Reporting fly-tipping

Fly-tipping can be reported to the council online. The council asks people not to touch dumped waste, which can contain hazardous material, but to note what it is, where it is and any details of vehicles involved. Householders can also be fined if their own rubbish is found dumped after they handed it to an unlicensed waste carrier, so it is worth checking a carrier's licence before paying someone to take waste away.