• RESIDENTS are growing increasingly frustrated at the deteriorating problem of fly-tipping. Council figures highlight how bad it has become, with more than 12,205 complaints about fly-tipping over the last four years, and that doesn’t include littering and missed waste collections, which see it nearly double.

The extraordinarily high cost of large waste collection imposed by the council last year does nothing but incentivise people to dump their waste illegally. Islington Council has one of the worst value-for-money, large waste collection schemes in London, charging a minimum of £30 with an additional £10 per item thereafter.

Fly-tipping figures reinforce local views that dumped rubbish is a big problem in St Mary’s ward, on the front door step of the town hall, with Essex Road and Upper Street continually being cited as key hotspots for fly-tipping and dumped rubbish.

The leader of the council’s own ward of Tollington performs the worst for fly-tipping in two of the last three years by the council’s own figures.

The increase in fly-tipping is systematic of a wider decline in waste collection services. The area with the highest number of missed rubbish and recycling collection complaints was Highbury.

There have also been a number of teething problems as collection dates for rubbish have been changed.

Under Labour, recycling rates seem to have reached a standstill. At the same time a recent investigation by the Press Association provided evidence that Islington Council had generated £145k from bin fines. Residents just see this as another way to make money out of them, as the problem goes from bad to worse.

NATHAN HILL
Gillespie Road, N5