A COUNTY councillor is calling on residents and the borough council to clean up some of the area’s litter hotspots.
Robin Lunn, county councillor for Redditch North, is urging visitors to Smallwood not to dump litter and black bin bags as removing the items is proving costly and time consuming for the council.
Coun Lunn said he understood there were particularproblems in Western Avenue, near Terryspring Court and Twinkle Nursery.
And he added: “This has been a regular issue raised by residents at the Central PACT (Partners and Communities Together) meeting.
“Environmental officers of Redditch Council and local volunteers had to remove, on the last count, 12 bags of rubbish which had been dumped in undergrowth.”
Coun Lunn added that the practice of simply leaving rubbish in the undergrowth attracted vermin and is, understandably, very unhealthy.
It is understood cats in the neighbourhood are tearing open black bigs and strewning the contents across the street.
“It is important visitors act like the Wombles of my childhood and take away rubbish and not dump it,” Coun Lunn added.
“This is beneficial to all concerned and I hope people will think like Wombles and not like litter bugs when visiting this area.”
A spokesperson for Redditch Borough Council confirmed the authority was aware of the situation in Smallwood, adding as soon as officers cleaned up litter, more appeared.
He said: “We’re looking into it. We suspect it may be as simple as bin bags being routinely being left out and got into by cats and dogs.
“Therefore we may in the first instance be able to support residents to tackle the problem at source by raising awareness in the community.”
