House a real dump

Press, 11 September 1986, Page 1

House a real dump

PA Wellington Fifteen rubbish contractors took three hours to clear a way down the long path that led to a Wellington house, only to find 1.5 m-deep rubbish piled in each room. The contractors were brought in by the Wellington City Council after the woman owner did not comply with a court order on July 1 to clean up her property. Inside the house, refuse was piled so high that the woman was forced to make her way in and out of a window at the top of an extension ladder. Rubbish consisted of cardboard cartons, old newspapers, tins, buckets and boxes, sheets of material, old clothes and shoes, paint tins, old furniture, and appliances, including about six television sets, several refrigerators and stoves, as well as decaying food scraps. Neighbours said the woman, aged in her 50s, was fit and strong and would move bulky appliances like refrigerators and stoves from the top of her pathway all the way to the house. She was often seen rearranging rubbish outside the house in the early morning, and in all weathers. At one stage she had filled her house so much that she had to sleep in a van on the road outside — until that became too full, and she moved back into the house. The unsightliness, smell, vermin and flies have offended surrounding neighbours for years. The council had been unable to enter the house legally, as it was aprivate property, until the court order was granted. Cleaning the house is expected to take several days, and would be “monitored” after that, a council spokesman said.