Less than 48 hours after Inside Croydon reported how Croydon Council had blighted a youth centre in Old Town with five years’ worth of blatant fly-tipping, workers were finally dispatched by Fisher’s Folly to start the work to clear the eyesore.
The clean-up begins: within 48 hours of Inside Croydon reporting the dumping outside the Old Town youth centre, the council started work to get it cleared
Included among the discarded mattresses, fridges, tyres and concrete slabs all dumped just a few feet from the entrance to the Charles Major Centre on Duppas Hill Terrace were even pieces of council office equipment – filing cabinets first acquired with council cash when they moved into Bernard Weatherill House just nine years ago.
Residents, community volunteers and even elected councillors in Waddon had been ignored despite five years of constant complaints and reminders about the council’s own fly-tipping outside the youth centre.
Senior council officials had often given promises that the mess would be cleaned up – only to then break their promises.
And then, this week, Inside Croydon exposed the council’s shabby conduct.
Yesterday, we received this message: “Thank you Inside Croydon!” Tony Harris, the former Waddon councillor, wrote.
Before: some of the unwanted furniture fly-tipped in Waddon by Croydon’s own staff
“We locals have been trying to get this dumping stopped for five years!
“Not even the local Labour councillors could get it stopped or cleared.
“Thank you to retired councillor Robert Canning for putting it to Inside Croydon.
“Yesterday there was a contractor taking pictures and today a council official came and tidied it all up to make room for a skip to be delivered to start the removal.”
Harris, who remains very concerned about other fly-tipping issues along Duppas Hill Terrace, which have also been ignored by officials, reckons it could take three or four skips to clear the accumulated rubbish from five years of council abuse.
But it’s always good to see this website’s reporting achieving a positive outcome.
Inside Croydon gets results…
Read more: Council caught fly-tipping discarded furniture by youth club
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Excellent result!
Where will all this stuff be transported to now? Thrown in some country lane outside the borough or burned in Beddington?
What’s shocking is that amongst all the crap there appears to be office chairs and paint which could have been used by a community group, rather than just dumped.
Is the pillock who set up this flytip still employed by the Council? I think we should be told.
Good to know someone in the council has responded.
Shame that no-one in a decision-making capacity took action over so many years, and in spite of elected Councilors and local people asking for the waste to be removed.
That is the whole point– no one took responsibility, no-one in authority told anyone to stop the dumping, and no one had either the respect for the local people, nor their elected councillors, to listen to and act on what they were requesting. Until the IC article.
Seems to me like someone in authority knew all about the dumping, authorised it, and thought of the site as a free tip. Maybe several managers.
A child stair gate could not come from a council office, but filing cabinets and chairs could.
Bizarre that one part of the council removes fly tip (I have reported incidences in the past–they were cleared quickly), and another did what is really flytipping.
Well done IC. Another case resolved.
“Not even the local Labour councillors could get it stopped or cleared.”
What an interesting observation. Yet Inside Croydon reporting this got a reaction and some action? But this Council does not listen to IC does it? (We all know they do read it though and with legal beagles up the orifice!)
So let’s look at the situation here
For 5 years with Labour Councillors asking – this Council allegedly did not listen to requests to clean up its own shit tip. (What a poor use of a Youth facility with increased Youth Violence on the streets over the last 5 years- there are a number of families with bereavements that may be wondering what this Councils actual Priorities were and are still?
One article and a Tory Mayor and suddenly it is being cleared under a Council Executive that has a Tory ”Advisor” and action occurs. Hmmm hows that helping the vote swing folks?
I would ask those Labour Councillors to take out their emails sent to the Council (if any) about this shit tip and ask the questions of Huh WTF ?
Impartial administration? Mis-communication? Or lost in translation?
I think all residents would love to hear the real truth about this shitty little saga.
But one thing is as sure as eggs having yolk – this Council has a track record now of doing shit it has been charged with preventing and given enforcement powers for.
But it looks like we have a Conduit for action albeit maybe temporarily. So get those fingers buzzing and lets bring all the shit out in the open for them to clear up shall we?