Missed rubbish collections leave streets ‘disgustingly filthy’

By Charlotte Lillywhite

Missed rubbish collections in Wandsworth have left the streets “disgustingly filthy”, with “rats running wild and the stench of decaying food”, councillors have said.

The concerns come four months after Wandsworth council’s introduction of free food waste collections for households with enough space for a storage container.

Wandsworth Conservatives tabled a motion at a council meeting on Monday, which said there had been persistent issues with the new rubbish collection service rolled out in June.

Repeated missed collections, increased littering and non-delivery of storage ‘caddies’ to households were among the issues listed in the motion. It called on the authority to commit to delivering a “fully-functional system”.

Conservative councillor Lynsey Hedges said: “Over the past four months, residents of Balham, Clapham South and across the borough have been massively let down, let down by the Labour administration’s promise to deliver a cleaner borough, let down by the inadequacy of the food waste roll-out.”

Councillor Hedges read out testimony from a resident who lives in Calbourne Road, Balham, who said: “Each and every week there are bags of uncollected recycling waste littering our streets for days after the scheduled collection day.

“I counted over 30 bags of uncollected waste on our street alone last Sunday – two days after they should have been collected.”

Labour councillor Judi Gasser, cabinet member for the environment, claimed the Labour-run council inherited some of the problems from the previous Conservative administration, which cut the street cleaning contract by £500,000 and took bins off the streets.

Councillor Gasser said the authority was making progress with its pledge to improve the service and plans to contact residents to explain the changes.

Pictured top: Wandsworth council’s town hall (Picture: Charlotte Lillywhite)