DUMPSVILLE: Would you want to live next door to a house like this?

Building rubble, wood, plastic, electrical appliances and even a kitchen sink were piled up at the house in Walverden Avenue, South Shore.

And in spite of repeated warnings from Blackpool Council the residents failed to keep a lid on the mess - eventually finding themselves taken to court for anti social behaviour.

Gareth Evans, 24 and Phillipa Eaves, 48, have been fined in their absence by magistrates.

They had been summonsed for failing to comply with a legal notice designed to protect the environment by having gardens which were a detriment to the locality under the Anti Social Behaviour Act.

And those living close to the eyesore have told of a year-long saga.

One resident of Marsden Road, where properties back on to the yard, said there had been a pattern of improvement followed by waste piling up again.

She said: “It’s been like this for a long time now.

“It’s not a health hazard but it certainly doesn’t look nice.

“It will pile up, get cleared and then all start piling up again.

“One time somebody came with a tipper truck and took it all away.

“But there’ll soon be more.”

The resident, who did not wish to be named, described one particularly memorable incident.

“One day a car appeared.

“The windows were soon smashed and there was wood piled and piled inside.

“The next day it was gone.

“There have been a lot of things like that.

“At one point he tried to make a fence out of pallets but that didn’t last either.”

Another neighbour said: “It doesn’t look nice but what can we do?”

Lynda Bennett, prosecuting for Blackpool Council, said public protection
 officers had visited the house after complaints about electrical equipment,furnishings and other waste littering the place.

The defendants were given time to clean up the area and despite written warnings failed to do so.

They were issued with fixed penalty notices and at one stage did some clearance but did not complete the works.

The prosecutor said:”It appears the house had been refurbished and everything that had been removed including the bathroom suite merely left in the garden.

“Calls were made to the house but no one ever answered and the fixed penalty was not paid so a decision was made to prosecute.”

Magistrates found the case against the duo proved and fined each of them £340..

Coun Gillian Campbell, Deputy Leader of Blackpool Council, branded the state of the house ‘unacceptable’.

She said: “ The pictures of this property speak for themselves. It is unacceptable that the neighbours have had to put up with it for so long. After our numerous warnings and fixed penalty notices were largely ignored we had no choice but to prosecute.”