Fly-tipped bags not removed by council for 6 days. 

The pictures are of the top of my road at the junction with Ruislip High Street  in the London Borough of Hillingdon.  

I noticed that a bag of rubbish had been depoisted next to the bench on or before 20th January. Ater a few days it was joined by a second bag.  Both bags had been removed by 26th January.

The first bag had therefore been in situ for at least 6 days.  What concerns me is that the bag was only 5 yards from a council bin and would have been clearly visible to the operatives who empty it every day. Why could they not have removed it on day one?

By not doing so the condition of the road was defaced for 5 extra days. Worse still, the bag could have been blown over and its contents spread around. The presence of one bag acts as a magnet for more.  That’s three good reasons for prompt removal.

I reported on a similar incident just round the corner in the High St in 2011.  I was told by the council operatives  that they could not remove fly tipped bags of waste without a ticket  from the council and that one would be issued only after a member of the public had reported it.

In spite of my writing to the council at the time the procedures do not seem to have changed.  I therefore wrote to the new Chief Executive asking  her to review them once again. She has replied saying that it would not have been unreasonable to expect the regular litter bin crew to have picked up the bag. She has asked  the Council’s Waste Management Manager to ensure that crews adopt a more  flexible and proactive approach.

Peter Silverman
18th February 2013