Residents in one of the country’s most deprived neighbourhoods have taken to burning their rubbish to stop mountains of bin bags piling up their streets.
Fed-up locals in Jaywick Sands, Essex say fly-tippers are using their community as a dumping ground leaving sofas, rubbish and scrap behind.
And despite the best efforts of a tight-knit community, who have taken responsibility for litter picking into their own hands, the neighbourhood is plagued by rubbish strewn streets and dilapidated houses.
Resident Adam told MailOnline: ‘We just burn your normal wood furniture, anything which isn’t toxic, like cardboard, magazines or old bits of furniture because otherwise it builds up way too quick and you end up with rodents making little shelters and homes.
‘It’s not just us. God knows how many people have little bonfires around here.’
Neighbours share a rusted oil drum to dispose of waste.
‘It’s a little busted because it’s been pushed up and down the road,’ said Adam. ‘It’s something the whole community uses, hence why it’s on wheels.
Neighbours share a rusted oil drum to dispose of waste. ‘It’s a little busted because it’s been pushed up and down the road,’ said resident Adam
Residents burn non-toxic items like cardboard, magazines or old bits of furniture
Last year three homes were destroyed and seven were damaged when a large fire broke out
The remains of the destroyed houses lay untouched and cordoned off behind barriers
Despite the best efforts of a tight-knit community the neighbourhood is plagued by litter strewn streets
‘We’ve probably had 500 to 600 fires. It’s not a bin of misuse. We’re burning stuff to get rid of rubbish for rodents.’
‘I can’t get to the dump. I don’t drive, my partner doesn’t drive. We maintain what we can.
‘We have had rats and we still have one. There’s one cheeky one coming in and out of the house.
‘For me it’s important to get rid of stuff which lays in the street or in the kid’s parks or fields. Even the back ends of the roads, where it’s overgrown, you’ve got more sofas being put there.
‘Eventually it’s just going to cause a massive outburst of rodents and people’s homes will be wrecked.’
In 2019, Jaywick was named as England’s most deprived area for the third time in a row by the government, based on income levels, employment, education, health, crime, housing services and living environment.
Around 57 per cent of people were living with ‘income deprivation’, meaning they were not earning money or needed benefits to support them.
A year earlier a UN poverty expert visited the neighbourhood to examine causes of destitution in the UK.
Two weeks before the visit, residents were ‘outraged’ after a picture of the area was used in former US Congressional candidate Nick Stella’s campaign to warn Americans of how he claimed the country could look if voters did not support Donald Trump in the 2018 midterm elections.
Since then, a £5.3million site including shops, cafes, a community garden and an events space has been built.
And in September, Tendring District Council adopted a £126m 20-year plan to improve Jaywick Sands.
But the population of nearly 5,000, who live on the Essex coast in Nigel Farage’s Clacton constituency, still face serious litter problems with bags of rubbish piling up and household items such as fridges, mattresses, sofas, or microwaves often dumped by fly-tippers.
Even decaying boats lie abandoned in overgrown plots of land.
One rotting boat has remained on Stanley Marlton’s road for over a decade.
He told MailOnline: ‘The boat has been here ever since I moved here. I’ve been here 11 years.
‘The council won’t move the boat. The bloke who owns it is dead now.
‘The council were down once. They said clean it up. They’ve done nothing else.
‘There’s places here which are gone derelict. It’s getting ridiculous down here.
‘It’s down to the residents to sort it out. We all sort out the rubbish ourselves.
While bins are collected every two weeks, piles of waste continue to grow, created by fly-tippers.
‘People say it’s a dump here but if you ask the generations of people who have been living here they will say the complete opposite,’ said Jaywick resident Adam
The neighbourhood, on the Essex coast in Nigel Farage’s Clacton constituency, still faces serious litter problems
Jaywick Sands was the subject of a Channel 5 documentary entitled Benefits By the Sea in 2015
Discarded mattresses are sprawled across the neighbourhood by fly-tippers
Stanley Marlton (pictured) said an abandoned boat has remained on a plot on his road for at least 11 years
‘We have to put up with dog s***,’ resident Lorraine Faughan said
The build up of carboard contributes to rat infestations, residents said
‘When you live around here, most people are elderly or unemployed. The only way to get rid of so much rubbish is a skip,’ one resident said
Litter strewn streets are filled with empty bottles and other discarded rubbish
Jaywick resident Adam (pictured) said people are burning their rubbish to prevent rodent outbreaks
‘I’ve seen lorries, they dump stuff everywhere,’ Mr Marton said. ‘We have to go down and clear it all up. We pick our own rubbish up every day.’
Lorraine Faughan told MailOnline: ‘We have to put up with dog s***. There’s a lot of fly-tipping. We just see a white van pull up and dump stuff and that’s it.
‘We don’t know if they are residents. We called up the council and told them about fly-tipping and they are still leaving it.
‘They don’t want anything to do with this road.’
A resident, wishing to remain anonymous, told MailOnline: ‘I see people fly-tipping all the time.
‘When you live around here, most people are elderly or unemployed. The only way to get rid of so much rubbish is a skip.
‘People haven’t got the money to dispose of rubbish properly.
‘It’s sad. In the summer there’s rubbish all along the seafront. Seagulls have it all out on the black bags. There’s food and rubbish everywhere.’
The close-knit community have formed litter picking groups, such as the West Clayton and Jaywick Litter Pickers, as they try to keep the area clean.
Last year Cllr Bradley Thompson took a week of annual leave to pick up ’20 odd years and 54 tonnes’ of litter.
Barry Shimell (pictured) picks up litter from the beach three times a day
Public bins designated for small beach waste have been chained to stop people filling them with oversized rubbish
Geoff Martin (pictured) has a sign on his house warning people not to fly-tip
Mr Shimell told MailOnline the neighbourhood would be left in a ‘diabolical state’ without volunteer cleaners
Last year Cllr Bradley Thompson took a week of annual leave to pick up ’20 odd years and 54 tonnes’ of litter
Other residents who strive to keep their neighbourhood clean report a never-ending stream of mess.
Barry Shimell, who picks up litter from the beach three times a day, told MailOnline the area would be left in a ‘diabolical state’ without volunteer cleaners.
‘The problem in Jaywick is no one wants to get rid of their rubbish at the tip. They don’t want to go there. Every night there’s always fires.
‘They set their rubbish on fire because they don’t want to take it to the tip. Sometimes they can’t afford to get rid of the rubbish, so we go and clear it afterwards.
‘There’s mattresses, you name it, it’ll be out there on the beach, burnt.
‘One day I got up in the morning and there was somebody’s wardrobe and a dressing table.
‘Another time the school was coming to the beach so I cleared it for them. I found a bag of drugs, car keys, nappies buried in the beach, all debris.
‘I help pick it up, I put it in the litter bin. I pick up everything because a lot of litter pickers don’t pick up dog poo or small bits of plastic.’
Public bins designated for small beach waste have been chained to stop people filling them with oversized rubbish.
Lorraine Faughan (pictured) told MailOnline: ‘There’s a lot of fly-tipping. We just see a white van pull up and dump stuff and that’s it’
Local litter pickers try to keep the neighbourhood tidy but abandoned boats, furniture and rubbish bags still line the streets
While litter picking volunteers help to clean the area, electrical appliances such as fridges remain
‘All the litter bins have got a padlock and chain on them,’ Mr Shimell said.
‘They say the bins here are only for rubbish on the beach but we have cars and lorries coming to dump all the rubbish. A green car came and dumped a shed on the side and drove off.
‘We put our own signs up there, saying don’t put your rubbish here.
‘I’m really p***** off with it. We pick up tons of litter. You pick it up and it’s back again. Within a week you go past fridges, mattresses, carpets.’
The mounds of rubbish would be dealt with quicker in a more affluent area, according to Mr Shimell.
‘If you go to Frinton-on-Sea you don’t get this. There’s little respect down most of this now. Residents and council both don’t care. They know what goes on down here but they won’t enforce anything.
‘They had the wardens here before 6am in the morning to catch people tipping. They only did that for one day.
‘It’s the place which time has forgotten.’
The rubbish would be dealt with quicker in a more affluent area, according to Mr Shimell
The area previously has been identified as England’s most deprived neighbourhood by the government
Residents have formed litter picking groups but struggle to deal with the level of fly-tipping
Geoff Martin, who has signs erected on his house warning people not to fly-tip, clears rubbish dumped on the beach.
He told MailOnline: ‘I take other people’s stuff every couple of weeks to the dump.
‘People leave their stuff here as they can’t be bothered to take it to the dump, which is one mile away.
‘The council don’t help. They don’t even empty the bins here properly. It’s left to the residents
‘I just don’t care any more, I just do it.’
But not all residents help.
‘A man came out of his house and gave us black bins to collect his rubbish and then went back inside,’ Mr Shimell added.
‘The front of his house was filled with broken glass, tins, rubbish, you name it.
‘He thought we were going to clear his stuff up. I said I’ve had enough. No more. I don’t mind picking up litter but when people come out of their house and give you a bag, I’ve had enough.’
Last year three homes were destroyed and seven were damaged when a large fire broke out, which councillor and Chairman of Clacton Council Dan Casey said was caused by a bonfire in a skip.
The scorched houses remain in pieces with rubbish piled on top.
‘The guy doing the bonfire thought he was doing somebody a favour, by setting fire to the rubbish,’ he told MailOnline.
Many houses in the neighbourhood are built with timber frames and are therefore particularly vulnerable to catching fire.
‘My opinion is that it’s a bit silly to set rubbish on fire,’ Cllr Casey said. ‘Imagine someone in London setting their rubbish on fire. If they’ve got the wrong stuff in there it’s very dangerous.’
Chairman of Clacton Council Dan Casey said ‘It’s a bit silly to set rubbish on fire’
A number of houses remain incomplete and abanonded in the Brooklands area of Jaywick
!['[Residents] will believe the area has gone downhill, it's deprived, it's a bit neglected, but we don't stop helping people here,' Adam added](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/02/05/12/94885231-0-image-a-34_1738759175624.jpg)
‘[Residents] will believe the area has gone downhill, it’s deprived, it’s a bit neglected, but we don’t stop helping people here,’ Adam added
Cllr Thompson told MailOnline: ‘A lot of people have got oil bins. It’s not illegal. I tried to raise this with all the fires we’ve had, but there’s nothing they can do. If it’s on their own private land you can’t tell them what to do.’
‘I’ve called for a total ban of burning in Jaywick. The wooden houses we have are unique.
‘The houses burnt last year wasn’t the only incident. I had to pull a woman out of a burning house around where I live. They were burning a bin in their backyard and their fences caught fire.
Despite fire concerns, Adam said ‘we’re very high on safety.’
‘A fireman got called for the bin burning once. He came and saw it and I could see on his face he knew his time was wasted. It’s safe.’
He also said the fires boost community spirit.
‘In the summer, we and the kids all sit out on the street. We’ll set the bin on fire and people will come together and use it for marshmallows.
‘We’ll have eight people sitting on the plastic garden chairs, we’re all talking.
‘Areas get labelled wrongly. People say it’s a dump here but if you ask the generations of people who have been living here they will say the complete opposite. They will believe the area has gone downhill, it’s deprived, it’s a bit neglected, but we don’t stop helping people here.
‘You don’t get any burglaries, you don’t get anyone pointing knives at you. The community is coming together to help clear it up.’
Despite efforts to clear the constant stream of fly-tipping, Jaywick’s residents are struggling to keep the neighbourhood clean.
‘There’s fridges laying around everywhere with doors left on them,’ Adam said.
‘If a child climbs on it and it falls on them, how do they get out?
‘If you walk around here for half an hour you would probably collect a couple of eight yard skips.
‘Every day you’re seeing something else. It’s messy, it’s ugly. It doesn’t make the place look like it’s being looked after by the people who have been here for two to three generations and who call this place home.
‘We can’t clean this area ourselves. It has to be brought by the council.’
‘Maybe they could start a day of training, or jobs for up to 15 people, like a litter picker but for bigger things like microwaves.’
A ‘code of silence’ where residents refuse to report each other for fly-tipping contributes to the messy environment, Cllr Casey said.
‘We take fly-tipping very seriously. I say to people you don’t need to give me a name, just give me the number of the vehicle, but they won’t do that.
‘Nobody reports the fly-tipping. I don’t understand it. If it came to where I was living I would report it.’
‘They don’t say a lot over there. They just get on with it.’
He added: ‘You clear it one month, it comes back the next month.
‘I think people take advantage of what other people do, because they know litter pickers will come round. There are people there with their own transport who leave their stuff.
‘All you have to do here is take it down the tip. They’ve got bins for everything, for cardboard, for wood.
‘There are people on their own but there are also people who are very capable of dealing with it.
‘Some of these people are too lazy to pick up their own stuff and take it to the end of the road.
‘If there is a major issue we have all the facilities in place for people to get rid of their waste.’
A growing number of potholes have also blighted the neighbourhood
For the past nine months there has been no bus service through parts of the town because of the potholes which go down a foot deep, Cllr Casey said
‘There’s a very small budget and we really do try’ to fix potholes, Cllr Casey said
Cllr Thompson said residents have their bins collected every two weeks by Veolia Environmental Services.
‘The people that don’t stick to it are generally the ones that are left with rubbish.
‘You get the odd person, obviously discarding the fridges or mattresses or things like that, which is a fly-tip. And then when that happens on council owned land, or Essex County Council land, it’s normally picked up within 72 hours.
‘You are also getting people dumping on privately owned land, which is a bit different, because you can’t just go in and clear it.
‘If you decide to go and stick a sofa on a sea wall on the beach because you’re too lazy to get down the tip then, then that’s your problem. It means other people who have got to deal with the mess. It’s not just Jaywick, though.’
Not all residents struggle with their bins.
One, who wished to remain anonymous, told MailOnline: ‘Bin collection here is reasonable and the recycling is good.’
A growing number of potholes have also blighted the neighbourhood.
‘For the past nine months there’s been no bus service through parts of the town because of the potholes which go down a foot deep,’ Cllr Casey said.
‘There’s a big pothole on the seafront. The roads in Jaywick are only seven or eight years old.
‘We have to beg, steal and borrow to get the potholes done. There’s a very small budget and we really do try.’
