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Dirty Croydon II: “I’m ashamed of the dirty state of my road”

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It is not just the dirty, polluted air around Croydon’s roads, but the dirt under our feet on our streets which is a growing cause for concern.

The street scene on a road in Waddon ward in South Croydon this morning. Not a bin collection day, this is state of the street is a commonplace as people opt to dump their rubbish on someone else’s doorstep

Inside Croydon’s Garbage Gallery last year found all too many examples, all too easily, of our rubbish-strewn streets. With fewer streets cleaners and street scene officers having been made redundant by our Tory-led council, with greater numbers living in cramped conditions with nowhere to store their refuse before collection, and the bin collections reduced to just once a fortnight, our streets have become increasingly grubby, as casual, domestic fly-tipping has become a daily – or under-the-cover-of-darkness nightly – occurrence.

This, in turn, ends up costing the council – and therefore us – more money, as staff are often despatched to clear up the rubbish on an ad hoc basis. It is yet another example of the mismanagement of the borough’s services: Council Tax-payers get a reduced service, yet end up paying the same, or more, and yet the what we are left with is noticeably worse than in the past. Another lose-lose situation for Croydon residents.

Goodness knows what the state of the streets will be like when the borough’s dustmen go on strike in a few days’ time.

Our loyal reader has got an iPad, and this week they sent us this note: “I have lived here for nearly fours years and am very happy living amongst wonderful warm neighbours, the people are great. But the roads are disgusting. Why won’t the council spend the money to clean up the streets?

“Why do the council persist in making Croydon look so filthy? What do they gain? How can we residents be proud of our area when it looks so disgusting?

“When friends visit I am ashamed of the dirty state of my road. I actually remove all the litter from my road on a regular basis, it looks so nice when it is clean. Croydon Council do themselves a great disservice and are very short-sighted: clean roads would mean more businesses would be attracted to the area, it would also mean that people would want to buy homes here.

“People don’t want to move here because it looks so scruffy and unloved. I would love to help in any way to make Croydon a place to be proud to live in.”


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