Businesses act on Waterside Way filth

Kudos to Prentice Glass and Premier Scaffolding, which are among businesses on Waterside Way to have responded immediately and positively to an appeal for help in dealing with the litter and flytipping problem which is endemic to the industrial estate bordering the Wandle Trail.

Wickes and GoAhead, the bus company which has a compound on the industrial estate, have also said they will report any vehicles they see flytipping.

There are huge piles of dumped waste along the road that leads south from Plough Lane with pedestrian access to the riverside walk at its end. The Council has failed to act, with confusion over who is responsible for clearing it. Whoever’s job it is, it is getting worse.

Rubbish heaped up in Waterside Way

 

So how come things are finally happening? This is how it all began: with a Twitter thread at the weekend:

Cllr Gretton immediately sprang into action with a letter which he hand delivered on Tuesday night to all companies based in Waterside Way:

 

The very next day, Cllr Gretton heard back from Prentice Glass, whose unit is based right at the bottom of Waterside Way where it meets the Wandle Trail.

They said: “Our guys are regularly cleaning the end of the road, and to be honest I can not recall ever seeing a road sweeper down here? Maybe that’s something that can be pushed for… we have a real issue with the fly tipping and also many mornings arrive to human faeces, and used condoms, and many of the silver gas canisters disregarded all over the place. I would encourage for you to get CCTV installed to catch the people, that are responsible, and can install on our building inside the fence at the side?”

Today, Premier Scaffolding got their team on the case, sweeping, collecting accumulated rubbish from the pavements, gutters and street, and with a message: “some pictures to show that we take the rubbish in the road seriously…we have also asked our operatives to make sure they carry on using our skip for any rubbish they accumulate.”

On the case: Premier Scaffolding staff clear rubbish from the street

Many thanks to these responsible businesses which have stepped up and restored the cleanliness of Waterside Way in the absence of intervention from the borough’s official waste disposal teams, and thanks too to Cllr Gretton and the Wimbledon Park team who helped make this happen, as well as the dogged residents who have been raising repeated complaints about the situation.

 

We hear too that the council has now also sent a Neighbourhood Client Officer to examine the site. Cllr Gretton explains: “It looks like they’re now splitting the street into zones, getting Veolia to do the bits they agree on, and monitoring for the next month.”

In the meantime, one can only hope that other businesses in Waterside Way will join in, encouraging their staff to properly dispose of their litter in an attempt to keep this area a lot cleaner than we have seen it recently.