Student rubbish on historic street becoming ‘health hazard’, say residents

Residents of a historic street have been left angry and deflated after years of dealing with student rubbish.

Louise Orchard has lived in a terraced house on the steep road of St Michael’s Hill, which sits opposite a number of student flats on the road, for 13 years .

She told Bristol24/7 that the rubbish outside the flats has got so bad that she believes it is a health hazard.

Louise said:“The refuse that is left on the street for weeks on end by the students is not only an eye sore, but a terrible health hazard with gulls and rats proliferating. And we live with this week in and week out.”

“Of course once fly tipping starts it gets added to by other opportunists and we often end up living opposite a full blown tip,” she added.

Louise and her fellow neighbours are also concerned about the lack of accessibility caused by the bins, which often fall over into the road and take up a majority of the accessibility path which allows disabled access to the road from the walkway above.

The lack of available facilities to store the rubbish makes it worse, said Louise – photo: Louise Orchard

There is a maternity hospital and a children’s hospital nearby for which access to this path might be crucial.

Residents said the problem lies in the lack of available facilities for students to store their rubbish, meaning that all of it gets left in one location at the bottom of a path.

Louise said she is fed up with contacting Bristol City Council and Bristol University, which owns the student flats, after what she describes as years of inaction on the issue.

The converted office spaces were bought by the university as part of a wider property acquisition over the last 20 years, which has transformed the university into a pseudo-campus institution over the years.

Despite talking to the students and the university about the issue, Louise and her neighbours have struggled to reach an agreement over what should be done, and have found communication with the university particularly difficult.

“The university has a hot and cold relationship with us,” they said.

“Every now and again we are their best friend when they want to open a library, until we want something from them in which case they shut the door on us.”

Residents have made three complaints to Bristol City Council directed at various student houses on the road.

On several occasions the council fly-tipping team have come to clear the area and Louise said she was told that the university had been fined for fly-tipping.

Architects Nick Childs and Sam Kendon, who have lived on the road for nearly twenty years, are fond of the road, and are keen to preserve its historic value. They said the road’s complicated layout makes bin storage no easy feat.

While there is little storage for bins outside, residents say that beneath the student houses are tunnels that are connected to the roads by doors and gates, where students could store their rubbish if the university spent some money to make it accessible.

“The university needs to have responsibility for their area of the city,” said Louise.

“We choose to live in an urban setting and we are under no illusions about the downsides. But Bristol City Council would be the first to agree that having families live in central Bristol is a great thing for the city in terms of its economy, safety, etc.

“And we, the permanent residents of the street, have no problems when it comes to managing our waste appropriately.”

A University of Bristol spokesperson recognise the problems and have apologised to the residents.

They said: “We have received complaints about an ongoing issue with rubbish at a residence in St Michael’s Hill and have met with the students who live there on several occasions.

“Regrettably, as this has yet to be resolved, we have launched an investigation after which the students could face disciplinary actions. We would like to apologise to residents who live nearby and assure them we are taking this very seriously.

“We regularly deliver campaigns and awareness-raising to our students to inform them about Bristol’s waste and recycling procedures.

“If local residents or businesses have specific concerns about students in the city, they can contact our community liaison team.”

A Bristol City Council spokesperson said: “Fly tipping issues on St Michael’s Hill and Royal Fort Road have been reported to us. During 2022, Bristol Waste carried out three separate fly tipping clearances in this area.

“Officers visited the site [in January] and found it to be clear of waste. We will continue to monitor the location.”

Main photo: Louise Orchard

Read next:

• Residents of busy road in Bristol say impact of Clean Air Zone is horrendous
• Vision to transform neglected dumping ground into community space
• Plans to introduce waste disposal fees could lead to more fly-tipping

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