Huge pile of stinking rubbish found in garden of suspected illegal HMO by 'shocked' neighbour

A Northampton resident found a huge pile of stinking rubbish in her neighbour's garden after replacing a fence which had been rotted by the waste.

Mattresses, wooden furniture, bin bags and more have been dumped in the corner of the garden at the suspected illegal house of multiple occupancy (HMO) in Kingsthorpe.

Linda Burrows, 70, who made the 'disgusting' discovery last week, said 11 people were living at the property on Cecil Road but they have now reportedly left.

"I think it's something people should be aware of as you don't know what's on the other side of the fence," she said.

"I didn't give it a thought until the rubbish got higher and higher but it's not what I expected."

Linda moved to Cecil Road a year ago from Leicester after her husband of 35 years, Leslie, died of cancer to be closer to her family.

She said 12 people were living next door when she arrived, who eventually left, before the new tenants kept growing over the weeks.

While she had not noticed the rubbish in the garden, the large number of refuse bags left at the front of the house on bin day showed something was wrong.

It was reported to Northampton Borough Council and the house is now empty, but the rubbish in the garden was found during the fence replacement on Thursday (June 25).

"When they took the old fence down, the smell hit you and I'd not noticed it before," she said.

"It's just so bad and you'd think they wouldn't want to live next to that and I certainly don't.

"I got very upset at the time especially when no one would go out to see it."

Among the rubbish is a rug, a sofa, random bits of plastic, toys and more, while Linda is worried rats are attracted to it so she wants it gone as soon as possible.

"It's taking the council an awfully long time to get rid of the rubbish which I feel is a health hazard.

"It was there before I moved in but some of it they have added to it. I've never seen anything as bad."

A council spokesman said: “We have had a number of complaints about this property in recent days and are serving a community protection notice warning letter on the owner.

“This should result in activity to remedy the situation but if not, we will proceed to a community protection notice which will allow us to move to prosecution if the situation is not resolved.”