No-one wants to live in this part of Manchester anymore - students have ruined our neighbourhood

Photos show mounds of waste and overflowing bins in Manchester with sofas and laptops among the waste dumped into alleyways. The weekend closest to July 1 has become notorious for fly-tipping as it marks the point when most shared student house leases expire. And as they often only spend a year living in their properties, the occupants tend to ditch unwanted items before leaving.

But OAPs living in Fallowfield - where more than 50% of the population are students - said the mounds of rubbish had “ruined” the area and hit house prices. Nino Guglielmi, 83, who has owned a local hair salon in the district for 60 years, said the streets near his home became a ‘dumping ground’ each year.

Staring at the refuse in one alleyway, just off Furness Road, he said: “The students have left this weekend, and they’ve thrown all the rubbish all over the place. It’s absolutely ridiculous. They’ve thrown divans, they’ve thrown settees, they’ve thrown duvets, they’ve thrown laptops – you name it. They’ve thrown everything and then they go away.

“It ruins the neighbourhood. Nobody wants to buy the properties around here if you want to sell them because it's full of rubbish. The property prices have gone down. Nobody wants to live around here anymore. It’s like a dumping ground, Fallowfield.”

Nino, who moved to the Manchester suburb in the 1960s from Italy, said he had tried to tackle the waste with other residents as the problem worsened in recent years. But he had struggled with heavy lifting after suffering two heart attacks and said other long-standing locals were now too frail to deal with the growing issue.

He said: “The area has got worse. It used to be bad, but now it’s gone absolutely ridiculously bad. One time we did do a bit of cleaning, voluntary work around here.

“We’ve not done it lately because some people have died, and some are old age. But the students don’t do any cleaning up. They just dump it on the floor and they go. It makes me angry because now they’ve blocked my entrance at the back. I can’t even get my car inside my garage because they’ve blocked it with the bins.”

Nino said the waste attracted rodents, which were kept at bay by a pack of feral cats. And he felt the local authority was not doing enough to bring students to task who were responsible for the problem.

He added: “The council doesn’t care. We’ve got rats around here, mice. And we daren’t put down poison as we’ve got three or four wild cats. Luckily, they keep the rats and mice at bay."

Manchester City Council has been contacted for comment.