It’s a rubbish accolade to have but a lane in Cardiff has been named one of the worst ‘grot spots’ in Britain.
Hundreds of locations around the country were nominated by the public and from the list, the ‘dirty dozen’ were chosen by the Clean for the Queen campaign.
The back lane of Clive Street in the Grangetown area of the city was one of those chosen.
The area is notorious for fly tipping with TVs, tyres, bedding and all manner of household waste strewn across an embankment at the side of a railway line.
Now, the campaign, which is recruiting one million volunteers to pick up litter in their local communities on the weekend of March 4 to 6, ahead of the Queen ’s 90th birthday on April 21 and her official birthday in June, is hoping these areas will clean up their act and look forward to a spotless future.
'Needs a truck and specialist equipment'
However, the man who nominated the lane as part of the initiative said it would take more a few volunteers to clean it up.
Keep Britain Tidy volunteer Robert Donaldson said: “If you go down there, you can see it is too big a job for volunteer pickers, it needs a truck and specialist equipment to remove much of the rubbish.
“It would be a nice walk through down to Ikea and the bay retail park but it’s intimidating when you see sofas, fridges, tyres and TVs, becoming compacted amongst the brambles and trees. It’s uninviting and environmentally unhealthy.”
'Black Hole of Calcutta'
Robert said he hopes that the Clean for the Queen campaign will provide the impetus needed for the area to be cleared.
“Now that it’s been named and shamed, I hope the council will get involved to help clear it up. Something needs to be done because it’s like the Black Hole of Calcutta down there.”
Ashley Govier, Labour councillor for the Grangetown ward, said the Clive Street ‘grot spot’ was well known to him.
Lane has been a problem for over a decade
“The lane has been a problem for over a decade, it’s a nightmare. We’ve gated a number of lanes in Grangetown but we can’t gate Clive Street lane because there’s a number of businesses behind there.
“Where the long term solution lies for us is that as part of the local development plan for the city, all that area is going to be redeveloped, which will make it less attractive for fly-tippers.”
In the short-term, Coun Govier said the council has done everything it can to find a solution to the problem.
“Everything we can do we’ve done in the lane. In my view, the only solution is when that lane gets redeveloped.
'We’ve tried everything'
“Whatever you do in that lane, and we’ve tried everything, there’s nothing easily that will solve it other than when it gets redeveloped with housing and the whole banking is removed when it becomes a housing estate.
"Anything else I think just doesn’t work.”
The redevelopment plans for the area will get underway in the next 12-24 months and are to be complete in the next five years.
THE DIRTY DOZEN
1. Arthurs Hill and the Wingrove Terraces, Newcastle
2. Mill Lane, Dronfield, Derbyshire
3. Tickencote lay-by, Rutland
4. Canal bank, Northbrook Street, Brimingham
5. Copdock Interchange, southern outskirts of Ipswich
6. Back lane of Clive Street, Cardiff
7. Black Swamp, River Avon, Chippenham, Wiltishire
8. Queen Caroline’s drawdock, Hammersmith Bridge, West London
9. Church Lane, Tooting, South London
10. South Road, Erith
11. Grays Beach, Thurrock
12. Kemp Town seafront, Brighton
see-http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/lane-cardiff-been-identified-one-10890331
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