Woman battles council to clear rat-infested 'eyesore' behind her home

A mum who claims claims that rats have infested land behind her house is locked in a dispute with her local council.

Joanne Gibson says that the council-owned land to the rear of her property in Droylsden, Greater Manchester, hasn't been maintained for years.

Gibson, 51, says that the wilderness is infested with rats and mice, and that weeds are growing underneath the decking in her garden.

"This has been an ongoing problem for years," she said. "It's gone from being a really nice grass area to a total eyesore.

"I can't use my back gate any more because the weeds and trees are so overgrown.

"It's infested with mice and rats and people use it to fly-tip their rubbish.

"It's disgusting really."

Joanne, who lives with her son Harrison, 18, claims to have made countless calls to Tameside Council over the years to no avail.

She and her son have attempted to clear the area themselves, but the scale of the job has proved too much to manage.

"They claimed for a while that it wasn't owned by the council," Gibson said.

"But we paid to check the land registry and it is owned by them.

"They sent some lads from the community pay back team down with strimmers but it's gone beyond that. You can't strim overgrown trees. It's got to the stage where it needs sorting out once and for all."

A Tameside Council spokesperson told Yahoo News UK that they were looking into the issue.

He said: "We are investigating this further and will contact the resident with our findings.”

But Gibson is demanding prompt action. "It's horrible and not what you want to look out onto from your garden," she said. "It's been years since they cut it back."