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Tipping students have infuriated locals by dumping mattresses, refrigerators and even hookahs in alleys as they head home for the summer.
Photos show mountains of rubbish and overflowing bins in the student cities of Manchester and Leeds, with microwaves, party hats and broken fridges.
One photo shows a pile of toothbrushes, a broken birthday headband and a candle.
The weekend closest to July 1st is known for the large amount of illegal littering, as most shared student housing leases expire then.
Because residents often only live in their home for a year, they often throw away unwanted items before they leave.
Most students do not have a car at their disposal and taking their belongings to the local recycling points can be too much of a hassle.
But pensioners living in Fallowfield, Manchester – where more than 50 per cent of the population are students – said the mountains of rubbish had ‘ruined’ the area and driven down house prices.
One resident claims that the piles of waste have become so large that he can no longer even drive his car into the garage.
He said the waste has attracted rodents, which in turn were kept at bay by a pack of feral cats that entered the area.
Nino Guglielmi, 83, who has owned a local hair salon in the neighborhood for 60 years, says the streets near his home become a “dumping ground” every year.
Staring at the rubbish in an alley, just off Furness Road, he said: ‘The students left this weekend and threw all the rubbish everywhere. It’s absolutely ridiculous.
‘They’ve thrown divans, they’ve thrown sofas, they’ve thrown duvets, they’ve thrown laptops, you name it. They have thrown everything and then leave.
‘It ruins the neighborhood. No one wants to buy the properties here if you want to sell them, because it is full of junk.
‘Housing prices have fallen. Nobody wants to live here anymore.
“It’s like a dump, Fallowfield.”
Nino, who moved to the Manchester suburb from Italy in the 1960s, said he and other residents had been trying to tackle the waste problem as it had been getting worse in recent years.
But he struggled to lift heavy loads after suffering two heart attacks and said other locals who had been in the trade for a long time were now too weak to deal with the growing problem.
He said: ‘The area has become worse. It used to be bad, but now it’s gotten ridiculously bad. Once we did some cleaning here and did volunteer work.
‘We haven’t done it lately because people have died and some are old. But the students don’t clean up. They just throw it on the ground and go.
Furthermore, he felt that the local government was not doing enough to hold the students responsible for the problem accountable.
He added: ‘The council doesn’t care. We have rats here, mice.
‘And we don’t dare inject poison because we have three or four wild cats. Fortunately, they keep the rats and mice at bay.’
Elsewhere, Leeds Council warned the city’s 50,000-strong student population against illegal rubbish dumping ahead of ‘change over weekend’.
A local authority spokesperson said: ‘Leeds universities and their students are an important part of our community and make a huge contribution to our economy and culture.’
‘However, we recognise that in some areas with large student populations there may be problems with anti-social behaviour.
‘We always work hard together with the universities to encourage students to feel part of the local community and to take other residents into account.
“No one should have to tolerate anti-social behavior in their neighborhood and, as every year, we will do everything we can, together with our partners, to tackle this throughout the changeover period.
“We want to assure residents that any problems will be resolved quickly.”
Manchester City Council has been contacted for comment.