Irresponsible individuals are turning parts of Britain into "slums" by trashing our streets, furious residents have told Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick.
Locals in Handsworth, Birmingham awoke to a deluge of rubbish, including mattresses, sofas, bathtubs and tyres - dumped outside their homes.
Yet more than a month later, not all of this rubbish had been cleared: "It still looks like a disgrace. There's dirty underwear lying in the street!" exclaimed a horrified Jenrick.
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"I find it disgusting. It's like they get brought up to live in a pigsty!" Birmingham resident Barbara complained.
Parts of Britain are being turned into "slums" by trashing our streets, furious residents have told Robert Jenrick
GB News
As Birmingham City Council reduce bin collections to once a fortnight to cut costs following the shock bankruptcy of Europe's largest local authority, residents in nearby Sutton Coldfield have taken matters into their own hands.
Angela, fed up of being "the only one" on her estate to use the bins rather than the ground for her waste, regularly picks the litter in her own time, aided by Sutton Coldfield Litter Action Group.
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"[Flytippers] just turn up in the night and they just dump their rubbish. A landscape gardener came, parked their van and put a whole tree there. I would never dream of doing that in their house!", Angela fumed.
To add insult to injury, Angela told GB News the council had taken down the CCTV that could have caught the culprit.
Richard Parkin, the local Conservative councillor leads the Litter Action Group.
Robert Jenrick was appalled by what he saw on the streets of Birmingham
GB News
He told GB News how in his three years on the council, only one fly tipper had ever been prosecuted: "That took months, as well as a lot of time and effort and commitment from the resident who was the witness to see it through."
"At the moment, very few cases are being successfully prosecuted."
Horrified by the mounds of discarded rubbish strewn across the street in the UK's second city, Parkin fumed: "It looks like something out of a slum!
"Shame on Birmingham City Council."
The Litter Action Group has been nominated for a King's Award for its service to the community and counts among its ranks 1,500 members.
Volunteers pick rubbish in their own neighbourhoods, though are supplied with equipment by Sutton Coldfield Town Council.
Birmingham City Council is set to reduce its bin collections to once a fortnight to cut costs
GB News
Clearing litter is thought to cost the UK upwards of £500m a year.
Birmingham spends the second most, after London, on fighting the filth yet its streets remain unclean.
"People need to be named and shamed" Parkin argued, pointing to the need to stop the litter being dropped in the first place.
GBNews.com has launched a campaign to 'Stop Trashing Britain', demanding a minimum £1,000 fine and mandatory jail sentences upon a third conviction.
Jenrick said: "Parts of Britain are a complete tip right now and I don't want Britain to look like this. "People should know that their streets are clean. People should step up and take personal responsibility.
"And the people that are doing this, we should clamp down on them. It didn't used to be like this. It's time to stop trashing Britain."
Birmingham City Council was approached for comment but had not responded by the time of publication.
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