Fly Tipping

TheMimsy

Is absolutely sky rocketing - yesterday I saw a guy blatantly dumping a whole lot of furniture (blue sofa, drawers, mattress) on Tollington Park, more or less opposite St Mark Church in the middle of the afternoon. Pretty sure he was a landlord/agent. Totally brass faced and no shame!
Still there this afternoon, reported it via the Clean Islington app.

Tollington Way, just before Mitford Road junction, round the corner from what used to be an Afro hairdresser - if you have a kid in a buggy you cannot go through because of the regularly dumped rubbish and need to cross/change route.

Area near the Tesco cashpoint on Hornsey Road - despite stickers saying area is monitored and threatening with fine it's always full of dumped rubbish.

What a joke!

overandin

I do wonder how much they're saving by not offering free collection anymore for bulky items, it still still pretty reasonable to be honest though.

gardener-joe

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marko

There is loads of it on the lower end of SGR near Sainsbury's and round the corner of Lennox Road. There it appears to be domestic rubbish left out on the pavement near Vista House or the social/affordable housing of the John Jones development. Seems that residents can't be bothered to use the bin-store provided. There's another regular dump across the road too, where a resident dumps supermarket carrier bags of waste on the pavement on an almost daily basis.

I've also spotted staff from one of the restaurants on Clifton Terrace putting waste out by the bin in black bags - almost certainly illegal disposal of commercial waste. There is a great deal of broken-window syndrome going on here.

TheMimsy

@ gardener -joe the app works and it's a good tool, but what is the point in reporting time after time if the problem represents itself in the same places?

I imagine the apps purpose is to collect data around hotspots and recurrent issues. All good, but there does not seem to be any consequences/enforcement. On Tollington Way and Hornsey Road by Tesco the issue is ongoing. I have never seen any commercial dumping, just tons of domestic rubbish from people who can't be bothered to use bins.

Maximus

Frustratingly I reported something on the Islington Clean App twice and called Islington Council with no resolution. The fly tipping on my road (whilst very public), is set against some garages on private land, so they refuse to clean it up. Not really sure how to proceed but it’s be there for months now

HolbornFox

I was wondering how this stacks up with Airbnb as well, I have noticed one sack left outside in a certain spot on random days, makes me wonder if that is why.

gardener-joe

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fabruce

I have reported fly-tippers many times to Haringey and they even put up a sign in front of Cafe N4 (the old vagabond).
I think it acts as a deterrent now as there is less rubbish there, but what I can say is that rubbish is unfortunately everywhere. I noticed that someone in the building next to mine put a sofa out for collection and seeing that it wasn't collected dumped it on the street.

I don't know who did it, but I d love to report that someone from that building did it.

It's so strange that boroughs don't try and make more money from this, as fly tipping and littering in general it's a gold mine. And could make life so much better for everyone.

Oh well..I ll keep on asking explanation to the council, but I doubt it will help very much!

djmattyoung

lots of rubbish like an old bed and wardrobe just dumped outside Christ The King school on Tollington Park.
The bottom of Wray Crescent is usually pretty bad for people just dumping stuff too. There's a sign there say £1,000 fine but it doesn't deter people.

marko

Islington seem to at least eventually respond to reports (although they close the tickets generated some time afterwards). I've had instances where they haven't responded and can give you the name of the person responsible if you wish to complain directly.
I've seen no evidence that Islington is analyzing the data from the reports to do anything proactive. I've reported rubbish in the same place multiple times a week for about a year. It took an email copied to my councillors (none of which bothered relying) and a senior service manager at the council before they acknowledged the problem and promised to investigate.

Both Islington and Haringey both use the same Clean Streets app - it directs to the appropriate council using GPS - only it's not very accurate and provides no means of correcting its errors. This makes reporting issues on Stroud Green Road difficult as it's on the borough boundary. Notionally, the two boroughs have a protocol for swapping reports when they're misdirected. In practice, Islington claimed to have passed it on and Haringey then do nothing, nor provide any visibility into it. The app remain inadequate and nobody seems to care (it's shocking that both councils are actually paying for this).

In recent weeks rough sleepers have moved to the Haringey side of the railway bridge - presumably because of enforcement action across the road. The council needs to start taking action of its own.

TheMimsy

@ Marko - like you I am always reporting dumping on the app and I have done so for more than a year now. I put a complaint via the web form on the Islington Council back in March and cc'd one of the ward councillors, who said she would pass it onto the Anti Social Behaviour Team but nothing much has happened since. I may pursue it again. I agree that the council is doing nothing proactive to analyse the data for the regular dumping hotspots; this makes the app a totally reactive way to solve the issue. I also find it ridiculous that there are stickers threatening people with fines when nothing seems to happen. Empty threats never work...

wraylikefay

Overandin...not sure I agree with pretty reasonable rates for Islington collection of bulky items..from free to £30 ...£10 per item but minimum £30 ..I just managed to get a bed in my car to take to the dump but if I was carless and brassic....

markpack

One tip re Islington - if you go through their complaints process I find they usually do sort things or at least give a decent reason why it's not happening https://www.islington.gov.uk/contact-us/comments-and-complaints-info/the-complaints-process

I find the Haringey complaints process much more hit and miss.

(And no, don't ask how much dumped rubbish, graffiti, blocked drains,... I reported in 2017. Think how many more tweets I could have sent if I'd saved all that time...)

Fireddo

Hi guys, I’m resuscitating this to discuss the same topic. I recently moved into the area. On Wells Terrace, I noticed my neighbours have a habit of dumping their household rubbish on the street. Daily. Under a lamppost with a sign saying fly tippers will be charged up to £50,000 if convicted.

The rubbish seems to be collected fairly frequently by the council, so I’m trying to understand what’s going on. Is it a thing to have such type of arrangement with the council?

Peter Crumb

Hi, Fireddo. I used to live on Crouch Hill and the arrangement was to put rubbish on street between 9pm and 6am (or something, can't remember exact time). This was because there house opened directly into pavement so no space for a bin etc. Could be the same case in Wells, I don't know!

LukeG

I think Fireddo, it may be worth chatting to your neighbours and asking them to place it neatly if it's causing rubbish to be strewn everywhere- used to live above a shop and it's pretty standard to leave rubbish out, in line with the timeframes that the council have - as long as people don't leave it out at the wrong time, it's sadly pretty standard behaviour.

My neighbours love to leave everything at the side of the road for collection, doesn't seem like fly tipping is ever enforced.

HolbornFox

So I seem to have acquired a new neighbour who throws bags of rubbish onto the street at will and can't even be bothered to tie them up half the time.

I have been using the app and it is always cleaned up to be fair, however it struck me that if the council take no action against them and the street fairies clean it up they will think it is a normal thing to do.

The only reason I haven't emptied the lot on their front step is because the other flats in the house are housing decent people, it's a dilemma for sure.

I had a look at the other pictures on the actual website for the app, it's grim, particularly in South London.

drjones1517

The app reinforces this bad behaviour to an extent. I've had considerable success reporting problematic neighbours to the council's ASB team: they visit and leave warning stickers on the offending rubbish and try and educate the perpetrators. In extreme incidents, and with enough evidence, they will fine those in question.

HolbornFox

I was torn about doing this until tonight's avalanche of rubbish, ASB team on the way apparently.