Residents in a leafy suburb have been forced to fit padlocks to their bins in a desperate bid to stop scavengers stealing their rubbish.
Locals in upmarket Jesmond, Newcastle, resorted to the extreme measures after looters started rifling through their waste, leaving a trail of litter in their wake.
The homeowners are also fed up with students dumping rubbish because their own bins, which are often shared between six, are full up.
The frustrated residents, who live in a row of smart terraced houses, say the waste has attracted rats and foxes to the area.
They keep their bins in the alleyway behind their homes, which are in close proximity to HMOs [houses of multiple occupation], where groups of students live.
Alec Gordon, 46, who owns a performing art school, said: ‘I have seen bin looters and opportunists foraging through the rubbish.
‘I’ve confronted them before but they insist they aren’t doing anything wrong.
‘They leave the bins open and throw litter on the floor while they’re doing it.
Richard Colpitts, 65, said one bin for a house of six students just isn’t enough, resulting in residents using other people’s bins
Locals in upmarket Jesmond, Newcastle, resorted to the extreme measures after looters started rifling through their waste, leaving a trail of litter in their wake
Looters have been caught on CCTV cameras rifling through Jesmond residents’ bins
‘That may be one of the reasons people are locking their bins. I don’t do it myself, but plenty of residents do.
‘People are precious about their bins, it almost becomes part of their identity.’
He added: ‘Residents do use bins that aren’t their own. There are sometimes issues with litter and boxes being blown away which causes a mess.’
Pictures show bins clamped shut with large padlocks.
Rubbish is strewn across the the alleyway behind the posh homes, which can sell for £500K. Larger houses in the area sell for more than £1m.
A discarded mattress has also been left behind.
One local, who asked to remain anonymous, says he fitted a lock to his bin after a decorator dumped four tins in it and he was left covered in paint.
He said: ‘I put a £25 clamp on my bins because of other people using them.
Alec Gordon, 46, says he has seen people rummaging through bins himself, with no care for the mess they leave behind
The frustrated residents, who live in a row of smart terraced houses, say the waste has attracted rats and foxes to the area
One resident reported not even having a bin and being told to just put their rubbish wherever there is space
‘The bins are a disaster. We have a lot of multiple occupancy homes and there are up to six students in one property.
‘I don’t have a problem with 90 percent of the students but they do litter. They don’t know to put their bins out and bring them back in.
‘They’ve gone from living with their parents to student accommodation to living in a residential street and don’t know how the bins work.
‘They don’t have any consideration for people with prams or disabled people.
‘It’s not because they are bad people, they just aren’t aware. I blame the landlords, they should be telling them when to put the bins out and back in.
‘It leads to a lot of litter and bins being full. It attracts rats and foxes to the back alleys.
‘I was covered in paint after a decorator working in a student house put four tins of paint in my bin.’
Richard Colpitts, 65, a window cleaner said: ‘There are six students to a house and they get one bin, which just isn’t enough.
‘One bin is not able to cope with the amount of rubbish produced. Students will leave furniture when they move out.
‘One student asked me to give him a hand taking out a cabinet which he hadn’t emptied. He said he didn’t have time to empty it and didn’t care – there was £18 in the cabinet.
One local described the bin and rubbish situation as a ‘free for all’
Rubbish is left strewn across the the alleyway behind the posh homes, which can sell for £500K
Pictures show bins clamped shut with large padlocks, with others overflowing with waste
‘Locals have started putting clamps and locks on their bins but if you really wanted to get in you could just use a shovel to break them off.’
Hilary, a woman in her 70s, said: ‘The bins are an issue. Rubbish gets left in the back lane which has attracted rats.
‘The rubbish is also blown down the street, which is a bit of a wind tunnel.
‘When students move out of the HMOs at the end of the year they leave furniture and mattresses which take ages to be cleared away.’
Emma, 28, another local living in the street said: ‘We moved in last October and we don’t have a bin of our own.
‘We just have to use the ones that are in the alleyway. There’s often enough space in the bins. Some locals have locked theirs but we just use other ones.’
One local, who asked to remain anonymous, said: ‘It’s a free for all. When I moved in, I asked my partner which bin to use and she said to put the rubbish in any I could find.
‘Some locals have locked their bins to stop people like us using them.’
Peter Allen, a Liberal Democrat councillor for North Jesmond, said: ‘We have been campaigning heavily on the bin issue.
‘It’s mostly to do with HMO properties, which is mainly student accommodation.
‘We are campaigning to make sure that the landlords are informing students what they need to do with their bins.
‘The bins are left in the back lanes and that’s the cause of all the problems.
‘You get students arriving and they don’t know what they are supposed to do. We’re trying to tackle that.’
Newcastle City Council has been contacted for comment.
