A COUPLE who are renovating a city centre house say they are being plagued by fly tippers and drug users who are leaving dirty syringes outside their property.
Debbie Daly and Chris Hopper are making improvements to the house, in Charnwood Street, to rent out to students.
But they say each time they go to the terraced house they find their garden littered with super-strength beer cans, trash and discarded needles.
They have complained to both Derby City Council and the police to say nothing is being done to clear the area.
The council said the couple had not called Streetpride, which would remove the syringes. Derbyshire's police and crime commissioner, Alan Charles, said he would look into the problem.
Mrs Daly said: "On several occasions myself and friends have witnessed a large amount of rubbish and items dumped in the street.
"They are obviously left by local residents who use drugs and dispose of syringes on the roads and pavements. I have witnessed children playing with these items and I called the police on June 1, who told me to contact the council.
"This was at a weekend and there is no one at the council until Monday.
"I am appalled by the lack of urgency regarding what I feel is a major health and safety issue."
Mr Hopper said the couple bought the property in February to renovate and try to rent to students.
He said: "Druggies just seem to congregate here and discard their needles outside our property. It's disgusting."
Ian Wheatley is head of grounds maintenance and cleansing at Derby City Council. He said: "Having been made aware of Mrs Daly's complaint, we have cleared away the rubbish in question.
"Our environmental services team are currently working with businesses and residents in the area to try to resolve the issue.
"Streetpride do have an out of hours response service to deal with discarded hypodermic needles but do not have any record of having received a call to respond to a problem in Charnwood Street over the weekend of June 1 and 2."
Mr Charles, the police commissioner, said: "I am very sorry to hear of these problems.
"It is important that all the local partners work together to keep communities safe from harm.
"I will certainly look into the options available to us in the future to see how we can dovetail services more effectively."
