CROYDON IN CRISIS: Just weeks after the borough was named ‘the filthiest in London’ because of its poor bin collection rate, further data shows the cash-strapped council forking out £1m to clear nearly 40,000 reported incidents of fly-tipping in the past year. By PAUL LUSHION, environment correspondent
Central to the problem: even town centre sites have become fly-tip hotspots in Croydon
Croydon under Mayor Jason Perry has now claimed the title of having the most fly-tips in the whole of the country, just weeks after its streets were labelled “the filthiest in London” because of the high number of missed bin collections.
Both sets of data were generated by independent third parties, and indicate the poor level of enforcement action conducted by the local authority. They also trace back to the role of Croydon’s rubbish contractors, Veolia, who have just landed a £40million, seven-year contract.
According to a response to a Freedom of Information request, the latest figures for the total number of fly-tips that are reported or recorded show that Croydon had 38,163 incidents in 2023-2024. And that does not include illegal fly-tips on private property, for which the council is not responsible.
Croydon’s figures are 17% higher than the next worst borough for fly-tips, Camden (31,457), and 10 times higher than the nation average.
Neighbouring borough Merton, like Croydon a member of the South London Waste Partnership, also features in the top 10 areas for fly-tipping, with 19,846. Both Croydon and Merton hire Veolia to run their street-cleaning, bin collection and fly-tip response efforts.
Neither Croydon, Merton nor even Veolia can be entirely responsible for the activities of criminal fly-tippers, who often turn out to be shady commercial concerns which operate without a proper licence and conduct waste clearance works on the cheap.
But the upturn in Croydon’s fly-tipping volume follows the disbandment of most of its dedicated enforcement team and a fall in the number of prosecutions brought against criminal fly-tippers. The council issued just 10 fixed penalty notices between 2022 and 2023.
The worst-hit councils in terms of number of fly-tipping incidents for 2023-2024 are:
- Croydon Council: 38,163
- Camden Council: 31,457
- Hounslow Council: 31,361
- Nottingham City Council: 22,284
- Haringey Council: 22,148
- Merton Council: 19,846
Cleaning up this illegally dumped rubbish cost Croydon Council Tax-payers £1,099,594. The council stung with the biggest clean-up bill was Dundee City Council, with £3.3million. Camden and Enfield councils also spent more than Croydon on fly-tip clearances.
Rubbish performance: this is what a fly-tip in Shirley looked like after Veolia had been to clear it up last month
Merton spent £888,197 to clear its fly-tips.
“We wanted to continue to understand how big an impact fly-tipping is having and on people’s enjoyment of our beautiful country,” said Mark Ward, TOG24’s managing director.
“We are really keen for everyone else to love it as much as we do, but it’s hard when there’s rubbish strewn everywhere. As well as the impact on wildlife, there’s also the financial aspect in terms of the costs to local authorities. These are significant costs at a time when councils face a lot of other challenges. This money could be better spent elsewhere.”
Croydon Council’s party line is to blame the borough’s size and large population. According to the council propaganda department, dealing with fly-tips is “a key priority” for the borough’s Mayor, piss-poor Jason Perry.
The council claims that 98% of reported fly-tips are cleared within 24 hours.
You’ve bin done: meet the new rubbish contractors, same as the old rubbish contractors
None of which addresses the low number of prosecutions brought against the criminal fly-tippers.
Nor the long-standing concerns with the poor performance of rubbish contractor Veolia.
It is because of Veolia that there are around 1,000 fewer street bins around the pavements of Croydon today than there were in 2019: fewer bins means fewer collections means fewer staff for Veolia to pay to do the work.
And fewer bins also means filthier streets, too, whether through missed bin collections or fly-tips.
Read more: Two-year search to replace Veolia hands £40m deal to… Veolia
Read more: BINMAGEDDON: Mayor’s secret plan to charge £5 per new bin
Read more: Croydon and three other boroughs to bin Veolia rubbish deal
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