{"id":129801,"date":"2025-05-25T04:55:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T04:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/129801\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T04:55:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T04:55:11","slug":"stratford-road-shop-chief-fumes-as-rats-destroy-clothes-worth-1k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/129801\/","title":{"rendered":"Stratford Road shop chief fumes as rats destroy clothes worth \u00a31k"},"content":{"rendered":"

The manager of Jora Junction says rats from fly-tipped waste behind his shop are destroying his stock<\/p>\n

The manager of a high-end Asian clothes store has been forced to throw more than \u00a31,000-worth of stock after rats attracted by fly-tippers chewed through the clothes.<\/p>\n

Salman Khawaja, from Jora Junction on Stratford Road in Sparkhill, said rodents attracted by filth abandoned at the back of his shop had destroyed beautiful suits in his stock room.<\/p>\n

He claimed litter louts had been dumping rubbish filled bags next to commercial bins on Alfred Street for years, causing a stench and infestation.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Shop ordered to shut following repeated outbreaks of yob behaviour<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Mr Khawaja, 42, said despite having precautions in place, the rats had managed to get through the shutters.<\/p>\n

He was forced to throw away garments he intended to sell after discovering holes in fabrics and rat droppings in packaging.<\/p>\n

\"SalmanSalman Khawaja, who owns Jora Junction dress shop, says rats from fly-tipping have made their way into his stockroom and chewed through three suits – and also while the dresses have been hung up on the shop floor
\n(Image: Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live)<\/p>\n

He said: “When a customer asks for a suit, we go to the stock room and pick it out.<\/p>\n

“When we took it out of the packaging, there was rat waste and we saw the holes.<\/p>\n

“We have thrown away four to six suits. One was worth \u00a3300.”<\/p>\n

The only public car park for the area is on Alfred Street and Mr Kwaja said customers were put off by the disgusting sight and smell.<\/p>\n

He said the city council had installed a camera and questioned locals about their waste provisions but the situation was “not improving.”<\/p>\n

\"RubbishRubbish on Alfred Street in Sparkhill(Image: Reporter)<\/p>\n

Mr Khawaja said: “When people come from other cities to shop on Stratford Road, they park at Alfred Street and they see rubbish and rats.<\/p>\n

“I’ve heard girls screaming when they see rats, it smells.<\/p>\n

“Two days ago there was a rat hit by a car.<\/p>\n

“It was really, really big and disgusting.”<\/p>\n

Mr Khawaja pays \u00a3700 a month in business rates and \u00a348 monthly for an organised bin collection which is kept at the back of his shop.<\/p>\n

\"SalmanSalman with a damaged dress still inside its protective cover(Image: Nick Wilkinson\/Birmingham Live)<\/p>\n

He said: “The council has cleared it lots of times, I take pictures.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been in touch with the council but people keep dumping.”<\/p>\n

With visitors remarking on the rubbish, Mr Khawaja said it was a stain on the reputation of the area.<\/p>\n

He said: “I pay \u00a3700 business rates, what are we getting back from the council ?”<\/p>\n

The council said: “Fly-tipping harms where we all have to live and work and is carried out by environmental criminals that have no regard for our neighbourhoods or their well-being.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen fly-tipping occurs, we act as quickly as possible. Our crews clear hundreds of fly-tipping reports each week; this is in addition to the work our neighbourhood crews undertake to clean up across the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone needs to play their part in maintaining a clean environment. We have plenty of lawful options for people to responsibly dispose of waste or unwanted items.<\/p>\n

“We are committed to prosecuting fly-tippers whenever possible, and we encourage residents to provide reports and evidence for us to do so and we are looking to increase our duty of care inspections.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The manager of Jora Junction says rats from fly-tipped waste behind his shop are destroying his stock The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,48737,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-129801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-sparkhill","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}