New Addington residents have been marvelling at a new, low-cost council waste dump facility, which has sprung up without any public consultation.

Bin and gone: residents report that Veolia rarely bother clearing their ‘new’ dump on Chertsey Crescent

Even before the new Croydon Local Plan has been published and agreed, Chertsey Crescent appears to be providing some of the promised increase in recycling provision in New Addington. And all achieved without ever bothering the busy council officials in the planning department for anything as crass or tawdry as formal “planning permission”.

The new Chertsey Crescent dump has been cleverly sited right below some council CCTV cameras, possibly to deter fly-tipping… yet while the cameras are supposed to be operational 24 hours a day (according to a council notice), it appears that the deterrent isn’t working.

This low-cost new “facility” is of itself a paragon of recycling, as it is reusing the movable bins which had previously been in a nearby temporary enclosed refuse facility during the renovation works for the adjacent 11-storey tower block.

The renovation project was completed long ago, and the tower block provided with new refuse collection bins, though these are not fully used. It must have seemed such a… waste not to put the older bins to some use.

So now, there in the middle of a residential street, the bins sit, usually full-to-the-brim, with additional bin bags and large items scattered around. Most of the rubbish remains uncollected after the weekly Veolia visit.

“With the weekly quantities of refuse increasing, this ‘new’ facility is being used by residents and others and appears to be becoming permanent,” according to one resident.

Complaints from councillors, emails from residents and even reports using the council’s crap app have all failed to get the rubbish cleared and the new waste dump removed.

Croydon Council has, though you might find it hard to believe, a new “Customer Service Charter”, which includes the promise: “We listen to you and act on what you tell us”.

Just not at Chertsey Crescent, it seems.

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