“The amount they are charging for that is ridiculous,” said Brandon Estate resident Ola, discussing Southwark Council’s £25 charge for picking up bulky waste.
Last year Southwark was revealed as the eleventh-worst local authority for fly-tipping, at the same time as funding for street cleaning dropped and punishment for fly-tippers was low. The council says it ranks so highly because it logs all fly-tipping, not just incidents reported by the public.
Southwark is not unusual among London boroughs in charging for bulky waste. The council introduced the charge in 2015, and has brought in about £1.2m in revenue from this service in the six years since.
But both the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party say the charge should be scrapped to encourage people already struggling with the cost of living not to fly-tip.
“The bulk waste payment is probably more to do with this than anything else,” Lib Dem candidate James Gurling said as part of our Southwark Soap Box debate on the environment and climate. “Abolish that fee and you will find that people begin to work much more fairly with the system.
“If fly-tipping is an issue you want to tackle, charging for its removal is not going to help, particularly as times get harder and people’s available cash gets lower.”
Newington Estate resident Kym agreed. “People are going… to continue to fly-tip because £25 is a lot of money, and you’ve got your gas and your electric going up, food’s going up, everything’s going up.”
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Green Party candidate Clare Wood said that the money the council currently puts into going after people who dump rubbish illegally should go into cleaning the streets and eliminating the bulky waste charge.
“I don’t think it’s worth the enforcement,” she said. “If we put that money into collection… we would start to eliminate the problem anyway.”
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Labour’s Natasha Ennin defended her party’s record. She said getting rid of the charge would not stop people fly-tipping, as boroughs that take bulky waste for free also have dumping problems.
She added that the council has a 98 per cent record of removing rubbish dumped on the street within 24 hours.
Oyster Court leaseholder Neil was dubious. “That statistic doesn’t fit, just thinking about it roughly. I’m sure there’s stuff that’s there for a couple of days at least. Just walk round and open your eyes – it’s a mess. Really, it is. Walworth Road is a mess, it can be a mess down here.”
But Brandon Estate resident Paula said there was still fly-tipping in her area, but that things had got better recently. “It has improved, I’m not going to be telling you lies here. It has improved a lot in the last 24 months.”