Health hazard: Shamrock Road residents say that they have been reporting this fly-tip for more than three weeks
Residents of a quiet Thornton Heath street are becoming increasingly angry at Croydon Council for its lack of action over some persistent fly-tipping, which most recently has seen bin bags full of rotting animal parts, including a pig’s head, dumped three weeks ago.
Shamrock Road residents have been calling on the council for two years to equip their street with closed-circuit television cameras to monitor and deter the regular fly-tipping, which they say is being done by criminal gangs.
The residents say that they have contacted all the correct council contact points for reports of fly-tipping and environmental health concerns, but have had all their appeals for help ignored.
The calls from residents for CCTV to be installed on Shamrock Road’s fly-tip hot-spot began in early 2020.
Not much help: the council put up this sign in March 2020
So far, all the council has done is to place a sign on a lamppost.
“Something needs to be done,” said one resident who contacted Inside Croydon.
“For three weeks a sofa and bin bags stuffed full of rotting dead animals, as well as the pig’s head, has not been collected after being reported multiple times.
“The community need help and assistance to prevent this constant criminal activity from continuing, it is horrendous and unacceptable.
“Every day fly-tippers use this location. It is vile and a dangerous health hazard for when we have to take our children to school.
“All Croydon Council need to do is place CCTV cameras as a deterrent.”
In 2020, Veolia, the council’s rubbish contractors, were given a £22million “uplift” in their contract to keep the borough’s streets clean, with little apparent sign of improvements in the service or the state of the streets.
As another dissatisfied Council Tax-payer said today, “Croydon is supposed to be London’s borough of culture in 2023. But if the council keeps allowing disgusting fly-tips to fester on people’s doorsteps for weeks on end like this, Croydon will be a borough of cultures much sooner.”
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Some things are so serious that they need instant action. Under the contract for street cleansing and fly tip removal, surely there ought to be a category for “Top Priority” — Something reasonable would be a clause like “Attend site and remove waste within 2 hours of issue of instruction from Council ” Oh…. and a penalty for not doing so of £500 (and £250 per additional hour of delay)
I have seen a growing fly tip that has been sitting there for weeks in spite of being reported several times. To make matters worse, on two occasions I saw the fly tipping clear up lorry parked up 15 feet away on their break.
There is something seriously wrong with the contract when there is clearly no checking on the contractor’s lack of performance.
A quick Google finds the answer.
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 gives a person the right (under section 91) to take legal action to require a duty body – in this case, Croydon council – to remove litter on its land
where this falls below the acceptable standard set out in the Code for longer
than the period specified.
If a Magistrates’ Court is satisfied that the duty body is in dereliction of its duty, it may make a Litter Abatement Order, requiring the duty body to clean up.
The Act’s Litter Code of Practice sets out response times to restore an area to being litter free. Times range from as little as half a day; details are set out at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/834331/pb11577b-cop-litter1.pdf
You’d expect details like that to be included in the street cleansing contract, and to be something well-known to our MPs, councillors, relevant council officers and the contractor’s managers and staff.
So why are Veolia leaving our streets looking like garbage dumps, and why are the council’s senior management team, Labour and the Tories silent on taking action against a company profiting from its negligence?
Perhaps some public-spirited citizen will take the necessary legal steps to spur all of them into action.
A pig’s head for heaven’s a sake!!!. The poor creature’s ear could be a metaphor for all that’s wrong with this benighted boro. Can’t quite make it out in the pic, but I’m sure it’s raised a stink etc…
All this talk about a pig’s head is a timely reminder of what David Cameron did with one. What he did then with his percy, Boris Johnson is doing right now to the whole country.