Leader of Wandsworth’s Labour Group, Councillor Stuart King, has welcomed a decision by the council that brings closer the prospect of an end to early morning refuse collections in Putney. The u-turn by the council follows a long running campaign by Councillor King and local residents that culminated in the presentation of a petition to the council just before Christmas.

"I am delighted that the council now recognises the strength of local feeling regarding this issue. No one wants to be woken at 7am every Saturday morning by the noise of the bins being collected. There is an easy remedy to this and that is for the council to instruct its contractor [Biffa] to reschedule the collections to a weekday.

Every other part of the borough has their bins emptied on a
weekday so it should be a fairly straightforward matter to achieve. Indeed, Biffa agreed to the move in principle last summer but reneged when their staff voted the change down. The council, despite having the power to enforce the change, backed down and the change in collection day was scrapped before it was due to begin. Pressure from Labour councillors and local residents in the form of a debate in the council chamber and a local petition has now forced a rethink.

The petition, which was organised by a resident of Norroy Road, attracted over 50 signatures and was considered by the council on 3 January. At the meeting the council agreed that its senior staff “will be entering into negotiations with Biffa and driving forward changes to the current contract…it is likely that changes to the refuse collection arrangements would be implemented during the Summer of 2006”.

Detailed below are some of the roads affected by early morning collections, and a sample of comments taken from the petition.

Fawe Park Rd, Norroy Rd, Chelverton Rd, Disraeli Rd, Ruvigny Gdns, Glendarvon St

“Thank-you for taking this initiative. My week-ends have been disturbed ever since Saturday collection was put in place and would really welcome a rota being set up. I don't see why we have to put up with it all the time”

“We find it deeply unpleasant to be woken up this way every Saturday, especially as we have to get up early throughout the week and would dearly love a longer sleep on Saturdays”

“The noise is unbearable and I dread every Saturday morning, knowing that after a hard week at work, I have to wake up at 7.00 am!”

I hope the council’s negotiations with Biffa are successful. However, the council must make it clear that if necessary it will enforce a change on Biffa as it legally can, in order to relieve the hardships caused by early Saturday morning collections."

Councillor Stuart King
Leader of the Labour Group

October 19, 2005