St Peter’s volunteers take back their streets from fly-tippers

A community on the outskirts of Ashton town centre has been under siege from piling rubbish for years.

The problem of litter and fly-tipping blighting the estates surrounding St Peter’s church has left people divided, blaming each other for the issues at hand. 

Overflowing bins, disused sofas and bin bags used to line the roads around Pelham Street, Trafalgar Street or Birch Street a couple of years ago. Although the problem hasn’t entirely gone away, things are changing.

Coun Kaleel Khan has long been organising litter picks and street cleans in the area, even before he was elected as an independent councillor for Tameside in 2024. There would be a repeated pattern of rubbish returning after the litter picks and an endless cycle of recurring problems.

That was until he identified what he believes is the source of the problem – a lack of communication between neighbours. 

“Some residents have never spoken to each other even though they’ve been living there for 30 years,” Coun Khan explained. “People didn’t want to open their back windows because they were so ashamed of the rubbish in their back garden. Rats were running around everywhere. 

“I have been doing this for a long time. It’s bringing pride back into their community.

“People are now taking responsibility for reducing fly-tipping and litter. They are holding themselves to account.”

Coun Khan and his political ally Ahmed Mehmood set up a WhatsApp group locally, which is connecting residents quicker than their door knocking and leaflet posting could. Coun Khan explained that this has brought the community together as they are speaking through the WhatsApp group and organising a collective effort to combat the issues.

A recent example of this effort was a major alley clean around Pelham Street and Trafalgar Street. Over the course of two days the army of local volunteers filled three skips of rubbish.

“The amount of rubbish we cleared was enormous,” Coun Khan added. “A lot of residents said now they feel they can open their back windows with pride. 

“They are already planning on having barbecues in Summer. The message is clearly about community cohesion.

“If you don’t know your next door neighbours, everyone blames everyone else for the issues.”

The scenes pictured today are in stark contrast to the streets that Coun Khan showed the Local Democracy Reporting Service in June 2024. During that tour of his St Peters council ward, Coun Khan said ‘there will probably be more when we go around the corner’ – he was right.

There was also a pungent smell of bins that had gone months without collection as they had become contaminated (wrong waste put inside). There were deeper problems on display as well as the independent councillor felt fly-tipping was the most visible sign of a deeper decay. 

Anti-social behaviour was also prevalent – and he told of young people with ‘nothing to do’ being preyed on by criminals and used as drug mules.

Speaking previously, Coun Khan said: “There is nothing for kids to do, they are bored and full of energy,” Coun Khan admitted. “It is easy to get kids to transfer drugs from A to B and pay them off because they are making free money.

“It does make me feel sad and makes me feel I should’ve stood up and done something earlier. This will not change overnight, it’s going to take a long time to bring that change – and everyone needs to be involved.”

Coun Khan explained that these problems are becoming something of the past in the St Peters area now. He credits community volunteers and the locals themselves for taking accountability and working to improve their neighbourhood. 

Coun Khan added that Jigsaw Homes setting up the Jigsaw Foundation has played a vital role in helping get kids off the street and becoming a bigger part of the community.

Before and after pictures following the street cleans of Pelham, Birch, Trafalgar and Mansfield streets in St Peters area of Ashton.