Perry’s pile: the fly-tipped mattresses, around 30 of them, were dumped off Stoney Lane last week. Despite pleas for help from residents, Croydon Council refuses to act
Croydon’s dismal reputation for clearing up fly-tips around the borough leaves residents defenceless against criminal gangs dumping on the streets in an industrial scale
Having presided over council contractors dumping hundreds of books on the street in Broad Green last week, now failed Mayor Jason Perry’s council is refusing to act over another massive pile: around 30 mattresses, all fly-tipped in a residents’ car park in Upper Norwood.
The mass fly-tipping incident occurred last week off Stoney Lane.
This is in the heart of the Upper Norwood Triangle Conservation area, which adjoins similar conservation areas in Bromley and in Lambeth and, according to Croydon, “contains a wide variety of historic buildings”.
And now, it is home to a veritable Perry’s pile of ancient bedding, too.
The dumping is in an area which is not well covered by CCTV. So no one can be certain how the mattresses came to be dumped in this off-street site. Speculation suggests it is a job-lot, with the old mattresses possibly coming from someone running an HMO – home of multiple occupancy – or perhaps even from a nearby hotel.
What is certain is that Croydon Council refuses to take any action.
After more than a week of submitting reports and requests for the council to remove the dirty old bedding, yesterday residents received this response from an official in Fisher’s Folly: “Following several discussions with our Waste Services team over the past few days, unfortunately it has been confirmed that, due to the specific location where the mattresses have been dumped, they are unable to proceed with clearance.
“As the site is not council-managed land, the responsibility for removal falls to the landowner or the property management company.
“I completely understand this isn’t the outcome you were hoping for, and I genuinely share your frustration. It’s never ideal when the responsibility falls into a bit of a grey area, especially with such a large and unsightly fly-tip.
“As this matter falls outside of the council’s remit, we are unfortunately unable to provide further assistance.”
When asked why the residents affected could not pay for the removal under the council’s bulky waste removal service, the one-line response from the council said: “Unfortunately, for this particular waste removal, we are unable to provide our bulky waste services.”
Piling it on: Perry was boasting about a minor fly-tip, the day after his own contractors had trashed thousands of library books
So while Perry has been boasting about the clearing of isolated, minor fly-tips – “This is what taking pride in Croydon looks like” he tweeted, barely a day after his own contractors had dumped thousands of books outside the Broad Green Library which the Tory Mayor had closed – residents elsewhere have been fobbed off after being victims of a serious criminal act.
One outraged resident told Inside Croydon: “We have clearly been targeted by criminals, so I am flabbergasted that Croydon Council won’t even allow us to pay for the removal of these mattresses.
“Commercial waste companies will charge upwards of £25 per mattress for removal – so around £750 for the lot. For us to have to share this between three residents who each already pay Croydon more than £180 per month in Council Tax is a disgrace.
“The council hasn’t even offered to investigate the crime.”
According to the council’s own data, the number of fly-tipping incidents in Croydon has soared by nearly 60% over the past couple of years.
There were 34,051 fly-tips reported to the council between November 2022 and November 2023. In the following year (to November 2024) there were 53,316, an increase of 57%.
These figures coincide with hardly any successful prosecutions for fly-tipping brought by Croydon Council since piss-poor Perry became Mayor.
Slumberland: dozy Croydon Council has not even tried to investigate who was behind this illegal dump
Between 2022 and the end of 2024, there were just four successful prosecutions brought by the council for criminal fly-tipping in the borough.
Croydon Council’s own figures show that over five years – 2020 to 2024 – there were just 14 prosecutions for littering in Croydon. The figures also show zero prosecutions for graffiti and fly-posting.
Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of waste, including household, industrial, and commercial waste, a criminal offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
The maximum penalty is a fine of up to £50,000, or up to five years in prison, or both.
Not that that applies in Croydon under failed Mayor Jason Perry.
Read more: #Binmageddon: Now Croydon named worst in UK for fly-tipping
Read more: Croydon’s fly-tip prosecution record is 2nd worst in all England
Read more: Residents’ despair over vile fly-tips, including a pig’s head
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