Frustrated shop owners in Toronto’s Yonge and Wellesley area say the city is refusing to pick up mounds of garbage that regularly accumulates in an adjacent laneway because it’s private property — even though the laneway’s last known owner died more than a century ago.

In an emailed statement to CBC Toronto, city staff said: “The City of Toronto is aware of the litter/debris in the laneway near 6 St. Joseph Street. A complaint about this was received in September and the City has been working through the ownership rights of the laneway as it has been identified as private property.”

But Adam Wynne, chair of the Toronto and East York Community Preservation Panel, said he’s already done the legwork and found there is no longer a legal owner, making the area behind St. Joseph Street an “orphaned laneway.”

Wynne said Ontario Land Registry records show the lane last changed hands in 1882, when it was purchased by a William Jones for $9,000. Jones has been dead for at least a hundred years, Wynne said.