Visited Birmingham suburb where ‘three-way hostile environment’ leads to ‘rat infestation’

Nicknamed ‘Smelly Oak’ by residents, the student-populated streets of Selly Oak have become infamous for black bin bags and spilled rubbish in recent weeks.

With more than 10,000 University of Birmingham students living in shared houses, with leases expiring at the end of June, locals have become increasingly frustrated with the piles of rubbish left behind at the end of each academic year .

Birmingham City Council has pledged to tackle the problem, stressing that everyone – from long-term residents to students and landlords – needs to take responsibility.

Now that the packing rush is over and most of the students have left for their summer holidays, I decided to visit the area to assess any improvements – and whether it still lives up to its notorious nickname.

The first road we visited was eerily quiet, a ghost town with empty windows and no passers-by. The only signs of life were “let’s go” signs and workers renovating houses, preparing for the next influx of students in September. Surprisingly, there was no significant litter in sight.

But when I was able to talk to a local worker, I got more information about the problem. Eric Silva, who frequently works on homes in the area, expressed his frustration with the blame often placed on workers for the trash problem. He described the situation as a “three-way hostile environment” between landlords, students and workers.

He noted that the problem was not as bad on the street we were discussing, but that on nearby North Road, where there are no bins, it was a different story.

“Residents actually put trash on the streets. So, because of that, there is a rat infestation. There are health issues,” he said.

Silva said that on July 2 a woman who lives on North Road “broke up” after her rubbish was not collected.

“She screamed in the street all night,” he said. “Some people blame the woman for not waiting for the council, but the council never came to pick up the rubbish.”

Armed with Silva’s insight, I headed for North Road. Here, the absence of trash cans was evident, replaced instead by areas of spilled trash and black bags full of trash.

There I met Mathew David, 22, who had just moved into a new lease down the road. He said the garbage collection protocol is confusing and laughed, admitting he’s not quite sure what to do before the next collection date.

“There are no real trash cans. We’re just told to take them out,” he said. His friend Thomas Armstrong, a 22-year-old computer science student, noted that the amount of trash on the streets had improved a lot now, but he remembered the end of June being particularly awful.

“When people left, they just left bags and bags everywhere. The roads were full of rubbish,” he said.

Sophomore Kaitlyn Verroken, 18, recently moved to the area. She described the rubbish left by former tenants as “appalling” and noted that although the council had cleaned up some of it, the situation was still “pretty bad”.

Local business owners such as Liam, who works at Sheanies, noted that litter could affect traffic on high streets. Others, like Lara Sikka, 23, have changed their routines to avoid the mess. “That’s why I run along the canal because there’s no rubbish there,” she explained.

Despite most residents seeing improvements since late June, we found that the area is struggling to shake its ‘Smelly Oak’ reputation. Even the local postman, while stuffing a few letters into a post box, remarked on the situation, calling it “appalling”.

The lingering impacts of the litter problem, even after students leave annually, highlight the urgent need for a united effort to address it. It seemed to me that Selly Oak’s fight with litter wasn’t going away anytime soon.

What did the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City Council say?

When approached about the issue, a University of Birmingham spokesperson said: “The University of Birmingham is committed to working with students, landlords, the local authority and will continue to promote the importance of keeping our neighborhoods clean and safe. We work hard to help students leave their neighborhoods in good shape when they move out for the summer.

“Students are given information and advice on how to consider their neighbors and their environment. Community Guardians run Junkbusters, a scheme to collect pupils’ unwanted clothes, books and household items to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. Community wardens also deal with other waste. problems throughout the year”.

Cllr Majid Mahmood, Cabinet Member for Environment at Birmingham City Council, added: “Clean streets remain one of the top priorities for Birmingham residents. The vast majority of students want to dispose of their waste responsibly but we are all aware of the season the problems that can happen and in particular the dangers of secondary rubbish fires As a council we are doing all we can to tackle this problem but there is a responsibility on all – from long-term residents to students to homeowners – to play their part.

“Having seen students work alongside council workers at our first joint event, I know how keen everyone is to keep Selly Oak clean and tidy for the benefit of everyone who lives and works there.”