Silent Crime: Angry resident fights back against persistent fly-tipping and drug use in alley

Fed up resident, Annie Valentine, has been battling against fly-tippers and verbally abusive ‘druggies’ since she moved to her home on Dainsbury Place three months ago.

Phone footage led to arrest

The retired chef has had her scooter 'hot-wired', and has confronted drug users and litter louts in the alley behind her home - but she is determined to clean up her street to make it a nicer place to live.

Annie feels so passionately about fighting nuisance behaviour that she regularly films their actions on her phone camera - which has helped Blackpool Police to identify at least one offender and led to an arrest.

Drug-users caught on camera

In the video report (above), Annie explains how she opened her front door and found a woman squatting down beside the gate. “I said what do you think you’re doing, and she said ‘I’m having a pipe but I’ve lost my crack’...children play out here, and you’ve got adults trying to do [hard] drugs.”

Annie, who moved from another property also in the Brunswick ward, says the local neighbourhood policing team have been ‘brilliant’. “They even knock on my door and check if I’m alright, and they tell me to be careful.”

Human faeces and broken glass dumped

Determined to make her area nicer to live, Annie has reported the fly-tipping and dumped bags of rubbish ‘including human faeces’ to the local councillors, who swiftly got the alley cleaned up with help from Enveco. Annie adds: “There were a load of men and a couple of vans that came to clean it up. It looked lovely.”

But a few days later, more rubbish appeared - including a mattress, more rubbish bags and broken glass. After attending the Brunswick PACT (Police and Community Together) group meeting, where Annie voiced her problems to local councillors and environmental health officers from Enveco, the alley was once again cleared up - in a continued effort to clamp down on fly-tipping in the Brunswick ward. This has also included a rubbish amnesty, where residents can dispose of large household items free of charge.

‘It’s not low-level crime when you live with it’

Annie adds that although things are getting done, the constant issues make her feel on-edge and ‘grind [her] down’. Speaking in the video, Annie says: “It’s not low-level crime when you have to live with it day in, day out. I’m constantly listening out and worrying what they will do next.”

Help to tackle fly-tipping

Coun. Laura Marshall, a councillor for Brunswick ward in Blackpool, told the Blackpool Gazette: “‘We are committed to working in partnership Enveco to empower the community to keep the ward tidy. However, we do understand in some instances some of our residents may not have the means to remove large household items on occasion which is why we provide an annual amnesty. Nonetheless, repeated nuisance flytipping is reported to the environment protection and enforcement team and will not be tolerated’