Forum Topic

Fly-tipping

I have just lodged a Freedom of Information request with the Council for  information by month this year (January 2016 to July 2016) on 1. Number of complaints about  fly-tipping 2. Number of actual call outs to deal with flytipping 3. Number of prosecutions for fly-tipping 4. Number of complaints about rubbish collection I confidently anticipate either a claim that these statistics aren't collected or a demand for money to provide them. Could I ask anyone interested to lodge the same request,to put the pressure on a bit? Form available at https://www.ealing.gov.uk/downloads/download/683/request_for_access_to_information. Maybe you could let this thread know you've done it? Thanks.

Christine Gratus ● 3682d29 Comments

Emailed the following:Please provide me with a monthly breakdown between Jan 2016 and July 2016 of the following:1. Number of complaints about fly-tipping.2. Number of actual call outs to deal with fly-tipping and within what timeframe from being reported.3. Number of prosecutions for fly-tipping or fines levied.4. Number of complaints/inquires about refuse collection and/or street cleaning. If inquiries, what nature was the inquiry?

Lee Page ● 3681d

It's really out of hand atm and with street cleaning happening so infrequently the borough is a mess

Jim McCauley ● 3681d

Is the Fly tipping epidemic anything to do with the recently introduced £23 per 100kg charge at the tip (recycle places or what ever they call them now)just a thought.

Harry Jay ● 3681d

The DIY/Building/Commercial waste charge?One of the problems at this time of year is that students may be leaving their accommodation.  Whatever stuff they leave behind becomes commercial waste to the landlords - who will often charge for the disposal of it...In some places eg Oxford the universities have made an effort to help students to dispose of their excess stuff by working with the local charities in making collections.

Philippa Bond ● 3681d

Have you seen the www.fixmystreet.com map for LBE? 

Philippa Bond ● 3680d

Have you seen the thread on www.actonw3.com on reporting fly-tipping to LBE?

Philippa Bond ● 3675d

Yup fixmystreet has been like that for a little while in relation to reporting flytipping.Just another example of LBE being incompetent!Just report ALL flytips on the LBE site, it's only 3 pages if you don't add you contact details.Yes it's a pain having to fill in a separate form for each flytip, but this is probably what they want to hinder people and inconvenience them so they stop and let the borough rot!

Lee Page ● 3675d

I would also like to know how many times they are called out to clear fly-tips from the same housing association properties.

Philippa Bond ● 3675d

The reply to my request:https://s15.postimg.org/3qvf32auz/FOI.jpgCopy and paste into a new browser tab.Clearly a very sharp increase in all numbers.

Lee Page ● 3664d

....why have wheelie bins increased fly tipping?

Penelope Crocker ● 3663d

I think it is more probably the fortnightly collections that have.  Some people can't be asked to be bothered to do any separation at all.  I believe there are also people crammed into illegally divided buildings or just doss houses with no space allocated for bins inside or outside.  Beds in sheds too no doubt with no Council Tax being paid to pay for the service and no tax being paid to the Inland Revenue for the income being made.

Philippa Bond ● 3663d

I see. Makes sense - thanks Philippa.

Penelope Crocker ● 3663d

Add to that all the stresses and insecurities that living life at an accelerated rate and in an unsatisfactory way brings in a time of austerity.  Communication breaks down between the Council and the residents, between the residents in the neighbourhood and between families themselves.We also had this change in collection come at the time that a lot of short-sighted students leave at the end of their courses or just move accommodation.  They buy everything on credit nowadays - a lot of it cheap (so it doesn't matter!!!???) much too much for them to take away with them and just expect someone else to clear up after them.  They don't pay Council Tax so why would they care - and their parents if they are around take little responsibility and just leave them to get on with it or just throw money at them.  Their landlords will probably fine them or deduct money for having to dispose of waste for them.  (It will be business waste and will cost the landlord.)  There are of course landlords who consequently just dump the waste - and/or there are landlords who will get a dodgy man with a van to remove the waste (unlicensed waste removal) or the dodgy builders brought in do a quick turn around in clearing out and painting/fixing things before renting out again as quickly as possible.And there are Housing Associations who don't support their tenants and regulate their properties as well.

Philippa Bond ● 3662d

I agree with all of the above.

Penelope Crocker ● 3662d

Yes, I agree too. It's not wheelie bins per se that are the problem, but the general breakdown of a sense of civic responsibility on one hand (pretty difficult to counter in the short term) and the mind-boggling incompetence with which the wheelies introduction was managed over quite a long period of time, for which, as has been said so often in various threads on this site, heads ought to roll. But I don't think we can let wheelie bins off the hook entirely. They're very, very visible in a way that the old containers weren't. Clutches of them near or on the street signal "put your rubbish here"; so people do - they just don't bother to put it inside. It's a bit like the the recycling site that used to be in the car park at Homebase along the A4. There's now a notice from Hounslow council saying they had to move it because it encouraged fly-tipping. Depressing or what?

Christine Gratus ● 3662d

The Homebase example you give is interesting.  When the council put a recycling site in the Homebase car park, it was perhaps not unreasonable for people to put other things alongside the bins under the impression they'd be collected from there.  You could say that putting things by the recycling bins was a responsible act compared with tossing the stuff in the bushes somewhere.  So why didn't Hounslow just take the stuff so conveniently stacked there?  Is it because one contractor collects recycling and another does bulk collections, so 'not our job, mate!' became nobody's job?  So in the end their perverse solution was to remove the collection facilities altogether because too many people were trying use them! Watch out bushes!The whole question of 'fly-tipping' seems to be a philosophical dilemma.  Some councils seem to think that if they clear up fly tipping, it will only encourage other people to tip stuff in the same place on the assumption it will be cleared away, but if they don't clear fly tipping, that also encourages more people to tip stuff in the same place - and that isn't cleared up! Discuss!

Peter Evans ● 3661d

It was good to use these facilities when we had been away and missed collections/had a party or people staying and had more than usual/were about to go on holiday or move and wanted to be clear of stuff. There were carton banks and book banks and clothing banks before some of these things were collected kerbside.  There were often cardboard banks. What I saw was the unsorted waste that was dumped in black bags.  A lot looked like random belongings in black bags - as in people moving/clearing out possessions or possessions of people who have moved on and left them behind - whether their own or someone else's.  Also a lot of builders' and DIY waste.  This was often put INTO the recycling banks.  Broken furniture or furniture which once it had been rained on would not be usable - especially mattresses.CCTV can deal with a lot of this but there seemed to be no will and it takes cooperation from the both the Council and the business. Sainsbury's in Chiswick took over the management of their site and I'm sure have CCTV.  Sainsbury's have signs warning about dumping/fly-tipping but they also have fewer recycling sites.  They probably also monitor better when bins are full - which is always something that users can do.Where I agree with you to an extent is that if you were on your way to work and intending to drop off a bag of plastics (used not to be collected kerbside) and then found the bin full putting it beside the bin would be considered fly-tipping. So was the cardboard box that you took any bottles in if you left it.  This lack of tolerance was discouraging.  Some sensible places provide cardboard recycling and a litter bin/plastic bag recycling (for the emptied carrier bag).  It would also be encouraging if they gave the details of the nearest HWRC and what you can take there.

Philippa Bond ● 3660d

I've seen wheelie bins with chains around them.  There have been quite a few reports of people having other people's bags added put in or on top of their wheelie bin.There are a few residents who obviously need help as they are unable to manage their waste.  If help was given to them showing them how they could avoid making so much waste they would find it easier to manage.  The majority have been recycling and have been responsible but there is usually something that we could all do a bit better.I was in Wandsworth recently and they still use dustbins - in fact they ask their residents to use dustbins with handles and clips on each side to keep the lid clipped on and have low Council Tax and they also have a very good website: www.wandsworth.gov.uk    Amongst all the interesting things I noticed was a list of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) so that the general public can easily check for themselves whether the Council knows about them instead of presuming.  You should never presume.

Philippa Bond ● 3659d

Just testing.

Lee Page ● 3625d

There's a dead rat on the pavement in Coningsby Road. I suppose it fly tipped itself there and prosecution may not be a suitable course of action, but it's been there since yesterday lunchtime, despite a friend of mine who lives there twice ringing the Council and twice being promised it would be taken away pronto (though the second time she called, they said they had no record of the first call). I hope she won't have to wait for the 6 weekly deep clean for the thing to be taken away.

Vlod Barchuk ● 3625d

I see the point but she could have been a little more public spirited about it and removed it herself. As could any of the residents of the street !

Penelope Crocker ● 3625d

Has the same dead rat problem in our front garden and managed to pick it up and wrap it in tin foil and then double bagged it in sturdy plastic shopping bags.  At that stage was wondering how to dispose of it and just placed it in a street rubbish bin that get emptied daily.  But is there a more correct way?  Garden paved so could not bury it.

Philip Coe ● 3625d

I found a dead rat on the pavement in our street yesterday - seem to be a lot of them in modern Ealing

Jim McCauley ● 3619d

Poor rodent, a sad end to its tail.

Joanna Corbett ● 3618d

Did you get a response to your FoI request Christine?

Andy Jones ● 3599d

Indeed I did, Andy. Lee Page also requested the figures and posted them on 05.09.2016, so I didn't post them myself. The fly-tipping problem has clearly got much worse since the new rubbish collection system was introduced but it could also be argued (if one were being very generous) that the council has finally got its act together and is tackling what was already a growing problem.  I wonder which is the more expensive - more frequent rubbish collections or sending round the fly-tipping team to clear up the mess?

Christine Gratus ● 3599d

It is interesting to see that the Council actually decided during this time to not accept any reports from www.fixmystreet.com which is an easy way for residents to report problems in the street be it missing kerbstones, rocking and dangerous paving stones, or fly-tipped mattresses etc.  Apparently they are trialling another system.  The Council reporting system has about 6 pages.  We need systems which are very easy for all residents to use and which give residents feedback to say that their report has been received.  Actioned would also be good!

Philippa Bond ● 3598d

there are thinking of which is the best and hardest way for us to report it that seems the way today make it more difficult for us to complain about anything

Harold John Ward ● 3598d

That is the worry.  Manipulation and massaging of figures to suit outcome wanted is a constant problem.  There were people couldn't get replacement food waste bins before the changeover for instance.  I also believe there were plenty of landlords who were not providing bins or bin space when you cannot expect people with little or no money to buy their own. There were so many dustbins displaced by the wheelies that could have been put to good use.

Philippa Bond ● 3598d