Croydon man picks up hundreds of bags of litter off street as council bin store remains locked

By Tara O’Connor, Local Democracy Reporter

A Norbury grandad has been left scratching his head as a new bin store has still not opened nearly a year after it was completed.

Ken Lloyd claims that the streets around Isham Road are strewn with rubbish, a problem made worse with the council built store remaining closed.

But the frustrated litter picker says he has not received a response on just what the problem is despite sending “more than 200” emails over the past year.

Ken has even sent councillors and council officers an invitation to a party to mark one year since construction started on the bin store.

He didn’t receive a response to this but plans on sending out an invite for the building’s first birthday in February.

He often takes it upon himself to clear up rubbish he sees in the road and emails council officers and councillors about this too.

Residents currently have to take their bin bags down the road on collection day where they are often torn up by foxes.

Ken said: “It is a waste of public finances, there must be someone in charge of the build.

“It being closed definitely increases the fly-tipping in the area, I don’t know what the cost is, but now they send street sweepers three times a week, it was once before.”

So far this year, Ken has collected 321 bags of rubbish on his daily dog walks as well as reporting hundreds of fly-tipping incidents to the council.

In September, Croydon council blamed a “power issue” for the bin store not being open for use.

Ken believes this power issue is that the store does not have any light which is likely required for health and safety standards.

The council was contacted for comment.