Food huts on Blackfriars Road

I've noticed the recent proliferation of mobile food vans on Blackfriars Road, underneath the railway viaduct. While I'm all for business enterprise I've recently noticed the extra rubbish, discarded food and general waste, starting to increase. Not to mention I've noticed the customers using the surrounding area as a dumping ground for their rubbish, plus a makeshift toilet when caught short. I expect we'll be infested with vermin next! Have others noticed a marked difference?

Yes - it stinks! You'd have to be mad to eat your lunch from those stalls. Yuk.

I haven't found there to be a particular increase in rubbish, perhaps because it's workers who eat there and take it back to work with them, but it does smell. Perhaps we should ask the council to fit more bins and raise about the smell?

i use the foot hut on under the bridge , the one thats next to the fruit/veg stall . Never had a problem with there food . Sandwiches/rolls much better value than tescos etc

I've noticed a recent proliferation of really negative posts. It's not that bad an area is it?

the main problem for us is having 4 big veolia paladin bin full to the brim ,and blue rubbish bag full of cooked food droped on the floor at the corner of isabella and joan street.it is an eyesore and vermin are around (pigeons , rats) .no facilities (toilets /hand wash ) for the food vans workers be another concern while eating out at those places .

I noticed that one of the huts was partially covering the information sign about the bomb damage to the walls. May seem a pedantic point but I think the ' story ' on the plaque should be clear for people to read and gives an insight to an important part of local history.

I was perturbed when the plaque commemorating the appalling bombings of 1941 which is on the outside wall of the Young Vic was often hidden, but someone must have realised this at last and it's been repositioned , I'm happy to report. It's a sad and inglorious fate for the plaque under the bridge though, especially now that thousand of visitors pass by every day and should be informed of the horrors.

I think the concern is that we have suddenly developed a mini market of food stalls, with little planning and no consultation. I don't have a problem with the stalls and I'm sure most locals are the same, but it does seem rather uncontrolled and examples of rubbish dumping and covering up the plaque are all examples of how things will quickly go downhill. The problems we have had with the Isabella Street bars has given the impression that no one stops any business from doing whatever they want.

All valid points, Zoë. Don't they have checks from health & hygiene inspectors ? Let's hope that they haven't escaped the net. The overflowing bins is surely an infringement in itself. At least the rats will be so obese that they'll be too fat to bother to wander around elsewhere.If only the fine diners in the restaurants were aware of what was sitting just metres away from them.How about some graphic rat posters dotted around ? They'd make the owners think again.Maybe.