Antisocial delivery riders are a ‘blight on our street,’ say Greenwich petitioners

By Joe Coughlan, Local Democracy Reporter

Greenwich residents have asked the council to clamp down on takeaway drivers ‘urinating’ outside their homes and making too much noise in the dead of night.

Greenwich council have received a petition for the authority to ask two takeaways in Woolwich Road to reduce their impact on nearby residents, but the local authority admits its powers are limited.

The petition was sent by residents of Fingal Street in East Greenwich regarding the Papa John’s and Morley’s Chicken stores on Woolwich Road.

They claim that an ‘enormous’ volume of by-products are created from the two restaurants such as half eaten meals being left ‘strewn on the ground’ – attracting various pests and rodents to the area.

The petition said: “We respectfully but vehemently petition the Royal Borough of Greenwich to urgently request from both businesses to adopt a socially responsible behaviour in the neighbourhood where they trade by conducting regular clean outs of their by-product, ceasing to occupy the parking bays indiscriminately, and ensuring that their industrial rubbish bins are rolled out on collection days only.”

It also demands that the businesses “prevent its delivery drivers from conducting loud and raucous conversations at late hours whilst waiting for deliveries, as well as urinating against residents’ homes”.

The neighbours said they were often kept awake into the early hours of the morning by the loud conversations of drivers.

Labour councillor Ann-Marie Cousins, cabinet member for community safety and enforcement, said: “Drivers are usually self-employed and work for different outlets, therefore enforcement is difficult. [Our] resources are also limited, particularly at night when the concerns are most prominent.”

Cllr Cousins said that the council could only explore minimising the issue by taking action against breaches of existing controls, such as restaurants staying open later than permitted and attracting anti-social behaviour as a result.

She said both businesses were noted to be leaving their bins out on days other than collection days during an inspection in November last year and were given a warning.

The manager for Papa John’s in Woolwich Road said that the restaurant currently has no in-house drivers and that all deliveries from the takeaway were made using Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Stuart services.

He said: “I think the problem is not Deliveroo, but the drivers. They are waiting on the weekend until 4am. They are waiting for the order and they are just chilling out. There are four or five drivers always staying there. So it’s not a complaint about us, it’s about the outside drivers.”

A Deliveroo spokesman said: “Deliveroo takes its responsibilities in the communities where we operate very seriously and regularly communicate with riders about respecting the neighbourhoods where they work.”

Both restaurants are also listed as being available for delivery from Just Eat. A Just Eat spokesman said: “We welcome discussions with Greenwich council on how Just Eat, other delivery apps and the restaurants can work collaboratively to respond to and tackle residents’ concerns.”

Stuart, Uber Eats and Morley’s Greenwich were approached for comment, but had not responded at the time of publication.

Pictured top: The two takeaways based in Woolwich Road in Greenwich (Picture: Google Street View)