Inhumane living conditions in Ratland due to rodent infestation, residents demand action from Labour council

Is this the largest dumping site in Britain? Here, heaps of trash overflow onto the streets, reaching people’s doorsteps and attracting an invasion of disgusting rodents.

Known as ‘Ratland’ by the residents of Dagenham, locals are furious about the ‘cruel’ conditions that have transformed this once idyllic town into a wasteland.

Rats and an overwhelming amount of waste resulting from increased fly-tipping have been labeled by inhabitants as a ‘curse’ on the town, with allegations that their local government, led by the Labour council, has failed to address the issue.

One local said the rats are ‘never ending, it’s going to be like this forever.’

‘I live by the railway and they are always coming into the back of my house,’ she added. 

Michael O’Neill, 62, a HGV driver, told Mail Online: ‘The rubbish is terrible, everybody just seems to be throwing it out. There’s rubbish everywhere, it’s for sure plaguing Dagenham.

‘There’s plenty of bins everywhere and no one seems to want to use them. It’s terrible to have rubbish right on my door step and it brings down the look of the place. Once people see it’s there they just chuck more on top of it.

‘It’s a big thing for me, every time I go out I see it and it does my head in that people are like that, why can’t they put it in their pocket and take it to a bin? It doesn’t make sense.

He puts the overwhelming litter down to an excess of food shops and carelessness from adults and school children.

‘There’s too many takeaways on every little high street, they’re everywhere. People are eating as they walk and as soon as they are finished they just throw it on the floor. 

‘There are vapes all over the floor too. In a majority of cases it’s school kids who use them and then just throw them out.

‘Everybody seems to have this attitude.’

The driver, who has lived in Dagenham for over 20 years, added it never used to be the dumping ground it has become now. 

‘It’s been like this in the last 10 years – you used to see road sweepers, but they’re not employed anymore because there’s not enough money.

‘Yet council tax keeps going up and then they’re trying to get rid of bin men – so what are we paying for.’

He blames his cash-strapped Labour council for not taking the issue seriously: ‘The local authority are quite quick to ask you to park your car correctly and this that and the other, but they won’t do anything with the rubbish. 

‘Everything’s going up but you don’t see where they’re spending their money; you don’t see any more road sweepers or bin men where the rubbish is concerned, that’s for sure.’ 

Mr O’Neill added he worries what guests coming outside of town think when they visit him. 

It comes after ongoing bin worker rows where staff were due to stage a strike for more than a week in August 2024, but a late offer of a 4.27 per cent overall rise saw it called off.

Olivia Virag, 55, moved to the area five years ago and is ‘ashamed’ to call the East London town her home due to its ‘excessive’ littering problem.

The librarian described the streets of Becontree Heath, near Dagenham, as ‘third-world’ and ‘inhumane’.

And while she’s pleading with the council to sort out the issue, she claims to have been ‘ignored’ and says that the whole borough is ‘progressively deteriorating’.

So much so that she has now dubbed the town ‘Ratland’ as the area is seeing an influx in rodents scurrying around daily.

‘Rats are very common here. Recently, a high street shop had to shut down due to a rodent infestation.

‘It’s disgusting and makes me feel so dirty.

‘I feel like my home is quickly being taken away from me. The initial sense of security and pride of being a homeowner has completely evaporated.

‘I never invite guests round, as I’m too ashamed for them to see where I live.

‘The state of the borough – and my immediate neighbourhood – has had a significant impact on my well-being, especially my mental health.

‘It’s not just declining the value of our properties, which is bad enough, but it feels like we’re living in a third-world country.

‘It’s disheartening to see a place I used to love calling home turning into a giant tipping ground.’

Ms Virag says the biggest culprits for littering are school children, as well as overflowing bins, which ultimately spread rubbish across the street.

In 2023, she complained to her local council about the ‘general neglect’ of the area, before escalating the dire situation to her local MP.

With little luck from the council, in November 2024, the librarian took to social media to ‘expose’ the state of the area and currently has 1,000 signatures on a petition calling on the local authority to take action.

She added: ‘I just hope we can restore some normality.

‘We are shouting for help – but it’s like no one can hear us.

‘The bins are insufficient, so people dump their rubbish wherever they can.

‘Council waste collection is lengthy – often up to six weeks – so unwanted furniture and other items are just abandoned on street corners.

‘And they can do this without consequences, as there’s no fines, or accountability.

‘The council need to rethink their priorities and take control of this issue that’s making Dagenham a living nightmare.’

It comes just weeks after a B&M in the town centre was forced to temporarily close due to a ‘pest issue’ following a complaint from the public. 

B&M previously insisted the closure was ‘voluntary’, with a spokesperson for the discount chain providing no details beyond the need for staff to ‘carry out checks’. 

The retail chain were contacted by Mail Online for further comment. 

While one resident who is a cashier at the local McDonalds said she saw a mouse darting across the counter at the fast food joint. 

McDonalds declined to comment.

For Robert Trimmer, 74, he says the only reason he is not worried about rats is because he has three cats to fend them off. 

But for the past seven years he has lived in a council home which has been vandalised by rubbish and says the council won’t do anything to help.

‘The litter is terrible. The council won’t let us do anything, they won’t let us put a fence round it to stop the litter.’

The frail pensioner says he has to bend down multiple times a day to pick up the rubbish and that his partner cannot help because she is disabled.

‘People coming from the shops just throw their rubbish on the floor and it all gets blown here because it’s a wind trap. They just drink their drink then throw the can.

‘It’s really distressing and tiring because I have to keep clearing it up. 

‘It’s an eye sore, it’s terrible and it’s killing Dagenham. The council come round not even once a month to cut the grass and they’ll pick up little bits of paper and then they just leave it again. 

‘There’s rubbish everywhere and it’s always been like this. The council don’t help at all, they should do something.’

Many of the people living this nightmare also have to fear for their pets, vet worker Kimberly Lee said.

The 38-year-old said pets are highly encouraged to get the Leptospirosis vaccine due to the rodent infestation.

Leptospirosis is a disease caused by bacteria that affects people and animals. It can be found in the urine of rats.

‘I’ve seen rats and we’re supposed to be a sterile clinic – we have dogs and cats coming in and we have to make sure they are vaccinated against Leptospirosis for this reason otherwise they could catch it and die. 

The vaccine is standard among pets, but Ms Lee suggested that is strongly advised due to the shocking number of rats in the area. 

‘It’s awful, everyday I come into work and it’s like this. I’ve not really seen anyone cleaning up either to be honest. It’s not great,’ she added.

A Barking and Dagenham council spokesperson said: ‘We have implemented action plans for areas in the borough particularly affected by the issue, which include regular, targeted cleans and visits by supervisors to identify improvements that are needed.

‘We provide a weekly collection for general, domestic waste and fortnightly collections for recycling. If residents do have a missed collection at any time, we encourage them to report it us on our website and the team will then return to collect their waste.

‘Our Pest Control team provide rat and mice treatment for council owned land and buildings, including estates, residential properties, and commercial premises.

‘For open areas across the borough, the Pest Control team also work closely with Enforcement, Street Cleansing, Highways, Parks, Caretaking and Housing to provide advice and recommendations to help reduce rodent activity.

‘We hope that by fining fly-tippers and people littering, working with partners to install new public bins, regularly checking on hotspots and making resident aware of the right way to dispose of waste, the issues around littering will decrease.’