Rubbish outside Chaucer flats 18-58

Hi does anybody on the forum live in these flats? I live opposite and noticed you are having a bit of a rubbish problem! Rubbish has been piling up for weeks and the council tell me it is not their responsibility. I volunteered with Southwark's street leader scheme and made enquiries about this but Southwark say it is the responsibility of the managing agents and the residents to sort it out. Have you guys had any luck doing anything about it? It's not nice for either of us. Can I help in anyway? Would be good to make contact and help each other hassle someone,
best wishes
Java

We have the same problem where I live.
I contacted Southwark, who said it is the responsibility of the managing agent to contact the Council because the mess is on private property. However, the Council will charge the managing agent to remove the mess, because the managing agent is a business. This will get passed on to me through the service charge so I will effectively be paying twice for the rubbish to removed: once through Council Tax for a service I don't actually benefit from and once through the service charge. Either way, Southwark Council benefits twice and - strangely enough - they didn't think my suggestion of a rebate was a tenable one. It drives me nuts. I should add that the rubbish does not originate from me or my neighbours - it is fly-tipped builders' waste, old carpet, a TV, a fridge, and old chair ...

Hi McQueen thanks for your reply. That's utterly stupid of Southwark but I guess a very typical approach-what are residents supposed to do? It's effectively blackmail, as the Chaucer drive residents, like you, are deposting household waste there because they have to-and others now seem to think it's a dumping site for their rubbish too! Hand over the cash or remain up to your ears in detritus. Bah! Java

This is a tricky one and I do sympathise with you I would hate it. But if I or someone else dumped stuff in my front garden (if I had one) I wouldn't expect the council and ultimately you as council tax payers to pay to come and remove it. As my land I would be responsible, annoying though it may be.

Is that Chaucer Drive?
Where abouts are flats 18-58?

i noticed this morning, when the binmen came round, that they emptied the bins, but didn't take the rubbish that had built up around the bin, neither did they put that rubbish into the bin afterwards. Just a little thing, but it would make a lot of difference.

What also really annoyes me is when i see that people have put bags of rubbish in the bin, with obviously recyclable materials in. Even more so, because there is a 'recycling station' about 6 feet from the bins. This morning for example there was a large bundle of newspapers tied up, and in the rubbish bin. Newspaper can be recycled!
also glass and tin cans/aluminium cans too!

just read this wonderful piece about ideas for charging you per kilo for rubbish!

plus of course council tax.....all of southwark would become a tip...people would be dumping all over the place..me included on the steps of the town hall! apparently it's a system used in europe?

Have made enquires on this today, will let you all know what happens. Can someone give me the exact address for this, as it's not in my patch and I don't want to give the wrong directions.

H

Jac wrote:

This is a tricky one and I do sympathise with you I would hate it. But if I or someone else dumped stuff in my front garden (if I had one) I wouldn't expect the council and ultimately you as council tax payers to pay to come and remove it. As my land I would be responsible, annoying though it may be.

Hang on! What you're saying is that when some scumbag decides they can't be bothered to take their old junk/building and DIY waste etc. to the tip themselves OR contact the Council and have them collect it for free for disposal, and decides instead that they'll dump it anywhere other than outside their own front door (i.e. fly tip), you - as the victim of this anti-social activity (actually, I think it might even be a crime) - should also have to pick up the tab for cleaning up? On that basis, my managing agent's bill (all of which would be reclaimed through the service charge) would already amount to SEVERAL HUNDRED £s this year because something is dumped at least once a week in our "private" street. (In fact, if you weren't too choosy about where your furniture and appliances have been, you could kit out a small home with the assortment of household goods which appeared as if by magic in the last four weeks or so.) In an ideal world, the miscreant would be cleaning it up (or paying for it to be cleaned up); actually, in an ideal world, they wouldn't have dumped it in the first place. However, in the real world, when the Council explicitly charges me and my neighbours (through the Council Tax) to provide the clean-up service, but then with-holds that service from us because we live on "private land", something is NOT RIGHT. It's like the BBC charging you for a TV license and then saying you can't have BBC2 unless you pay again (only the people down the road CAN have BBC2 for the original license fee because they live on "BBC land").

Actually Jac, if someone did dump rubbish in your metaphorical garden, you could phone the Council as an individual householder, pretend it's yours, and they'd come and remove it for free. It's "private", multiple occupancy residences which are screwed, unless the owner lives on site.

Apologies for the rant, but it is so depressing (and embarrassing, when you have visitors) to have to walk past a pile of other people's cr*p every day.

helen j-b wrote:

Can someone give me the exact address for this, as it's not in my patch

Assuming we're talking Chaucer Drive, it is in your ward:

http://www.southwark.gov.uk/Public/ShowWard.aspx?street=Ch&postCode=SE1

I didn't say life was fair I just pointed out it is not the councils job to remove rubbish from private land (except household refuse for which we pay).

It wasn't fair that someone filled our skip which we had paid for to dispose of our building rubbish overnight and we had to pay for another but the firm would not have emptied it and given us another for free just because it wasn't our rubbish.

You are right that fly tipping is a crime as well as anti social, and as Jan points out if councils start charging by weight then flt tipping of domestic waste will increase too. I too find it depressing when our lives blighted by others thoughtless attitude