The lane sandwiched between Oriel Road and Crofton Road in Rock Ferry is besieged by discarded mattresses, fridges, old furnishings, and an assortment of rubbish that has made it a breeding ground for rats and a frequent spot for bin fires—even under the watchful eye of CCTV cameras. This squalor has also attracted drug activity and unruly teens using the debris as barricades.

Oriel Road inhabitant Dave Howard has witnessed the degeneration worsen, particularly with an influx of renters in the vicinity. Despite periodic clear-outs, he told the ECHO the dumping recurs in no time.

Mr. Howard shared his exasperation, continually reporting issues but receiving responses that funds were unavailable for installing preventative alley gates. He lamented: "I have asked for them to be done but they said we haven't got the money. They have always got the money for something else."

Decades as a local, Mr. Howard now finds himself ashamed of his neighbourhood's deterioration, feeling let down by what he believes council taxes are supposed to cover: "I shouldn't have to live like this. This is what we pay council tax for so the entries are clean. Everything is going up and we are getting less.", reports the Liverpool Echo.

The dire situation is such that he dreads having visitors, revealing: "If we have got family coming down, I just don't like people over because of the condition of the street. They pull up and say 'Has it always been like that?'"

A local woman, preferring to remain unnamed, expressed dismay at the decline of her neighbourhood's cleanliness: "It used to be tidy and my brother came down a few years ago and he said 'oh my god what has happened to the road?' He said it was never like this and now it's the norm," she lamented, adding: "There are some really nice people around here but it only takes a handful to bring the area down."

Green Party campaigner Tony Norbury is calling for tougher measures against fly-tipping. He suggested that the problem might improve "if they have better enforcement and make a bad example of a few people and make the ERIC service free."

Norbury added: "We are asking for enforcement and CCTV cameras. The council are turning around and saying they can't afford it but then people get annoyed when they see the council building buildings in Birkenhead town centre that are empty and costing a lot of money.

"The residents here are absolutely beside themselves. If you manage to get it cleared, in a couple of months it's like this again."

Labour councillors Paula Basnett and Tony Murphy from the area reported tackling a significant number of fly-tipping incidents, with such cases consuming nearly half their workload. Cllr Murphy recently mentioned reporting a van caught on video dumping waste near Egerton Park and addressing 27 grot spots within their ward.

Cllr Murphy revealed that they have advocated for increased mobile CCTV surveillance in known flytipping hotspots and have previously assisted in cleaning up the Oriel Road alleyway and Old Chester Road, urging culprits to cease their littering activities. The councillors have joined forces with Magenta and a licensed scrap metal dealer named Metal Mickey, who collects and recycles metal free of charge.

Cllr Liz Grey, chair of the environment, climate emergency and transport committee for Wirral Council, expressed: "We are well aware that fly-tipping is not a victimless crime. It is a matter we take very seriously due to the impact it has on people's quality of life and the cost in environmental as well as financial terms."

She urged residents: "I encourage residents to report all incidents of fly-tipping to the council at the earliest opportunity and with as much information and evidence as they can provide. Reports are logged and environmental enforcement Officers will investigate and look for evidence linking it to an offender. They will always seek to prosecute anyone who can be proved to have fly-tipped."

She added: "Reports are passed over immediately to Wirral's street cleansing contractor, Biffa, to remove the waste according to priority. But just clearing alleyways is not the answer – identifying and taking action against those selfish people who dump the waste is the biggest deterrent."

Individuals can report instances of fly tipping at the designated link. Further details about the ERIC service for large items are available at the provided link.

Merseyside Police were contacted for a statement.