Brexit, the fuel crisis and the pandemic has been blamed for Croydon bin collection issues
By Tara O’Connor, local democracy reporter
Croydon Council’s bin collections have stalled again as residents have complained about missed collections across the borough.
A combination of Brexit, the fuel crisis and the pandemic has been blamed for a shortage of qualified drivers as training, recruiting and keeping drivers has become more difficult.
In early September, Croydon and Sutton councils admitted that recycling at some blocks of flats will be sent for incineration amid the national lorry driver shortage.
In July, one Croydon grandmother was left with an overflowing garden waste bin after it was not collected for eight weeks.
And Councillor Helen Redfern said that she has noticed a series of missed collections in the past few months.
In a post on the Croydon Conservatives website, she says that Croydon Council has claimed the HGV driver shortage and now crewing being caught up in the fuel crisis.
She wrote: “I have received many reports of missed bin collections over the past few weeks from Buttermere Gardens to Kendall Avenue South, and many roads in between.
“On my walk this evening I saw that many roads in Sanderstead also don’t seem to have their bins collected on Tuesday with the bins still awaiting emptying on Wednesday.
“Over the past few months, missed collections have been blamed on a lack of HGV Veolia which is apparently still the case. I have also heard that the trucks are also being caught in the queues for petrol stations.”
Fellow Conservative councillor Jeet Bains Tweeted that he was aware of the same issue in Addiscombe.
He wrote: “Same situation for Addiscombe East. Council web page says collections have been done. They haven’t. Have reported to council officers. Let’s hope it’s done today.”
Croydon Council was contacted for comment.
They told us that we would keep our own Freedom of Movement rights (Johnson). They claimed that we could cut red tape if we left (Vote Leave). They promised no border down the Irish sea (Johnson, Gove), that we would remain in the Single Market (Hannan, Johnson, Leadsom) and have an even better deal (Vote Leave), that there was no threat to the student Erasmus scheme (Johnson), that shopping bills would be cut (Paterson, Rees-Mogg) and there would be no shortages (Gove, Farage, Raab). They promised 350 million pounds a week to the NHS (Vote Leave), with no downside to Brexit (Davis), and that there would be no big bill but a windfall (Braverman). They said we should ignore the pessimists and the merchants of doom (Johnson) and that the country would prosper mightily (Johnson) and that we would be thriving in 2021 (Hannan).
They lied. They knew they would lose if they told the truth, so they lied to win the vote. For Cummings it was a game. For Johnson it was for self-promotion. For others it was for political or career reasons or from an irrational hatred of the EU. They relied on the public lack of understanding of the benefits of membership and the actual democratic processes of the EU, and in doing so they have given away our rights as Europeans, damaged our economy and threatened the cohesion of our union.
So how are you doing, five years on, what with all that prospering and thriving? Still think it was worth leaving the EU for all these unachieved advantages, for those curiously never-described opportunities? Or are you feeling somehow mislead? Could it be that the public were manipulated by a group of self-serving Tory egotists, nationalists, ideologues, fantasists and career opportunists, backed by a right-wing press pushing their own agenda, with the consequence of ruin to the country and the future of millions of families?
Now they want to blame everything on the virus. Not because it’s legitimate, but because it provides useful cover amid the public confusion they themselves have created. Good for a while, good for papering over the cracks while the foundations collapse. The virus will be gone soon but Brexit damage will be with us forever.