Mountains of decaying rubbish bags are being dumped and left abandoned in Twickenham after remaining uncollected for days.
Images gathered this week from Church Street, Richmond Road and Heath Road illustrate the breadth of the issue as masses of bin bags are being left accidentally uncollected by Richmond Council authorities or dumped by residents.
Overflowing bins were spotted around the back of Church Street off Arragon Road, where they have been left full of putrefying waste for several days.
Raisal Mourad, who works at RosieChai, a tea room and coffee shop that specialises in Lebanese cuisine on Church Street, said: “It’s embarrassing. It’s a tourist area, an attraction for all. When rubbish is left out foxes and other animals scatter all the garbage. It’s awful.”
A Richmond Council spokesperson stated: “This area is council land but not currently accommodated within the street cleansing schedule. We are currently adding this area to the car park’s cleaning schedule.
“The yellow bin is seemingly a private bin which has been abandoned, we have made enquiries and cannot find an owner for the bin, so we will be removing the bin from the site.”
Siobhan Alcaide, 31, an employee at Miss Pretty London, a spiritual and handmade gift shop on Church Street said: “You’d think it wouldn’t be here. People think they can try to hide it.”
Bin bags were spotted strewn across the pathway outside of Sweet Memories of Twickenham on Church Street, a traditional ice cream and sweet shop.
Paula Stryje, 30, an employee, said: “I was working that day when it happened. It’s annoying as I have to clean that mess. People don’t like messy stuff and it ruins the look of the shop.”
Other business owners suggested it is an ongoing problem for the area.
Jo, 47, who works at Mojo, a gift and novelties shop on Church Street said: “It’s standard. We live in a built up area without a waste collection service every day. We are always clearing away other people’s rubbish. It takes up staff hours and we even have to pay to remove it ourselves.”
The council spokesperson added: “We consistently encourage residents to take rubbish home if the street bins are full. However, excess rubbish will be removed as part of the regular street cleansing.
“None of this is irregular or an indication of a new or growing issue in Twickenham.
“The council has a statutory duty to collect domestic waste and every domestic property in the borough receives a weekly waste collection.
“Occasionally the waste collection crews accidentally miss bags – in these instances residents are asked to log a missed collection report online and the bags are collected as soon as possible.”
Heath Road is also a victim of this ongoing issue as mattresses have been left blocking paths as a result of fly-tipping.
Large items can be collected through Richmond Council’s bulky waste collections which can be pre-booked here.
Residents should only put their rubbish out for collection after 8pm the night before a collection is due.
Collection times for your area can be found here.
Public Recycling sites in Twickenham can be seen on the map below:
