Spanish holiday island loved by Brits overwhelmed by piles of stinking rubbish
Residents in part of Majorca have become overwhelmed by great piles of stinking rubbish.
Llucmajor, a district in the south of the Balearic island, has found itself facing Birmingham -levels of uncollected waste. Great mounds of mouldy food, household rubbish, and general gunk have been building up in the streets.
The roasting hot southern Spanish weather is making things worse, as the sun heats up the black sacks, turning them into putrid whiff bombs. This is a particular problem in a neighbourhood that is home to a large poultry farm, controversial not just because of the intense pong of hot chicken waste, but also due to allegations that the animals live in poor conditions.
Others have complained that the situation is not new and that Llucmajor has suffered such unpleasantness for far too long.
PSOE spokesperson Jaume Oliver said: "In Arenal, the population doubles starting July 15 due to tourists and second-home residents. The town hall knows that the same thing happens every year, and yet they don't increase services. We are not ruling out taking legal action against the town hall."
Another resident blamed a "systematic failure of the waste collection service" for not dealing with the rubbish build-up. 'With this heat, the smell is unbearable, and at night there are tons of rats. It's disgusting and scary," they told Crónica Balear.
"We have been experiencing collection failures for months, but what has happened in recent days has surpassed all limits."
According to local reports, the council's contracts with waste collection companies expired in May. The town hall has said that there will soon be a tender for the service. "In the meantime, FCC is obliged to provide the service until a new contract is awarded. The company is having problems with trucks and sick workers. In some areas, it is using leased vehicles."
The situation in Llucmajor is similar to that in Birmingham, where residents are dealing with the consequences of more than 100 days of strikes by the city's refuse collectors.
The Mirror's Sanjeeta Bains visited Brum in June, stopping off at Balsall Heath, an inner-city area. There she found "a horrifying trail of stinking rubbish including food waste from local takeaways lying just yards from people's front doors."
"Flies swarmed around half-eaten burgers and dirty nappies, and even after getting back in the car, there was no escaping the foul smell. I had to fight the urge to drive home and get straight into the shower. And to make things worse, brazen fly-tippers have been emboldened to take advantage of the council chaos."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Thousands face travel chaos after emergency landing shuts runway at Birmingham airport
Flights in and out of Birmingham were suspended for more than five hours on Wednesday after a light aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing. Police, fire and ambulance crews all went to the runway as the emergency developed. Three people on board the aircraft were treated at the scene, one suffering minor injuries, West Midlands Police said. Passengers faced hours of delays, even after the runway reopened, including many in Europe trying to fly back to Birmingham. Airport bosses announced at around 2.40pm on Wednesday that the runway was temporarily closed. It reopened shortly before 8pm. The light aircraft was heading for Belfast International Airport when it developed landing gear problems. Footage and photographs appeared to show a small white turboprop plane, understood to be a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air, lying flat on the airport tarmac. The same type of aircraft was also involved in a crash at London Southend Airport in July, which killed four people. The Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) said it had started an investigation, with a team including 'inspectors with expertise in aircraft operations, engineering and recorded data' sent to the scene. Airport chiefs apologised for the disruption. Flights originally scheduled to depart as far back as 2.10pm were taking off after the runway re-opened, but others faced delays as late as 12.10am on Thursday, according to Birmingham Airport 's website. Woodgate Aviation, the owner of the plane, said: 'The aircraft returned to Birmingham and made an emergency landing and the main under-carriage collapsed on touch-down.' Diana Celella, an interior designer from Sutton Coldfield, was due to return from Lisbon on a Ryanair flight departing at 8.20pm after a holiday, but saw online that the flight was delayed by nearly three hours. She said: 'My husband and I have had a lovely holiday, so it's a real shame to end it with this delay. 'The atmosphere among fellow passengers is mostly resigned - everyone we've spoken to recognises that it's out of Ryanair's control.' West Midlands Ambulance Service said in a statement: 'We were called at 1.45pm to an incident involving a light aircraft at Birmingham Airport. 'Hazardous Area Response Team (Hart) paramedics and three paramedic officers were sent to the scene. 'Upon arrival we found three patients from the aircraft, all of whom were assessed and discharged at the scene.'
BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
Rare shrill carder bee spotted at Bridewell Common nature reserve
One of the UK's rarest species of bees has been spotted at a south Wales nature reserve for the first first shrill carder bee has been recorded at Bridewell Common reserve on the Gwent and west Wales are among only a few spots in the UK where the bees, one of the rarest and most threatened types of bumblebee, are found - with other fragmented populations in parts of Kent, Essex, Somerset, Wildlife Trust (GWT) volunteer Bob Roome, who spotted the queen bee foraging on the organisation's reserve, said it was "so rewarding" to see the team's work to restore wildlife to the area paying off. GWT took over the reserve six years ago and has been taking action to help the shrill carder bee on the site, including spreading seed-rich hay to propel progression of wildflower species, establishing a consistent regime of late summer cutting and grazing management, and restoring species is named after the high-pitched buzz it makes when airborne. Once common in the lowlands, it vanished from most places during the 20th GWT said 98% of flower-rich meadows in Wales and England had been lost over the past century, drastically reducing habitats where the shrill carder bee and other wildlife could thrive.
Reuters
7 hours ago
- Reuters
UK's Birmingham Airport temporarily shuts after emergency landing
LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Birmingham Airport in central England temporarily shut its runway on Wednesday after a small aircraft was involved in an emergency landing that left one person with minor injuries. The police said in a post on X that emergency crews responded to the incident, which occurred at around 1340 local time (1240 GMT). The airport said in a later update that all people on board the aircraft had been discharged by the emergency services. Check in services and security screening were temporarily closed, it added. Images shared on social media showed a small propeller aircraft stationary on the runway of Britain's seventh busiest airport. The aircraft is a Beech B200 Super King Air that took off at 1211 local time and was bound for Belfast in Northern Ireland, according to plane tracking website Flightradar24. A spokesperson for the airport told Reuters they could not immediately confirm a timeframe for the reopening of the runway. The airport website showed some flights have been diverted to other British airports and some departures have been delayed to 1800 GMT. The airport, which served some 13 million passengers last year, is Britain's third largest outside London.
