Fly-tipping strikes one of Coventry's poorest areas
Sofa's, mattresses, doors and much more have been left.
Fly-tippers have struck in one of Coventry’s poorest areas. The waste was dumped on three roads and the main green of the Manor Farm estate in Henley Green.
Sofas, mattresses, a door and a pile of burned rubbish were some of the items left at the housing complex. City resident Ian Rogers spotted the rubbish on 29 August.
The Coventry Citizens Party founder highlighted the area’s deprivation and claimed city authorities do not “seem to care” about it. Coventry council and Citizen said they are trying to tackle fly-tipping and would investigate the latest incident.
Mr Rogers said: “Unfortunately, this is one of the poorest areas in the whole of England but neither the council nor Citizen Housing seem to care about the state of it.” He claimed the council is still moving homeless families to a “run-down tower block” at the estate.
“The local college has closed and the local shopping centre has been left to rot for decades,” he added. Mr Rogers pointed out that the wider area was included in a film by vlogger UK Explored on the city’s five “worst” places to live, posted in May.
He said: “It’s no wonder Henley Green was featured in a YouTube video about the worst areas to live in Coventry which has now been viewed around 80,000 times.” The film featured clips of the Manor Farm estate including areas where rubbish was spotted.
In a post from June on the Coventry Citizens Party website, Mr Rogers said he had taken “hundreds” of photos of fly-tipping in the area as well as Foleshill and Hillfields over the past four years.
He revealed that he grew up in a house “directly opposite” the Henley Green tower block, adding: “There used to be shops and a pub around the block which were knocked down when I was a kid. However, nothing has been done to improve the site since.”
Five years ago, Henley Green was ranked as the most deprived area in Coventry and the 94th poorest place in England. As of 2021, most households on the Manor Farm estate are classified as being deprived in at least one way – such as education, employment, health or housing.