Update on street-related issues within MEOTRA
Thanks to everyone who fed back about litter/street issues in our neighbourhood following last month’s article - around 20 issues at least.
We have had a meeting with the council officers last week which has moved some of the issues along a bit:
Onyx House Eurobins
The four 1500-litre Eurobins (two pink and two black) that have been living in Aberavon Road are still there. We have a bit of a standoff: Onyx House have no one to “present them” [ie put them out], and the council bin men won’t go in and get them as the wooden bin stores are congested, have hinges hanging off and are deemed a Health and Safety Hazard.
MEotra [emphasis on the ME] have looked at the planning application and, low and behold, the bin stores don’t match the granted planning permission. There are two rows of them opposite one another and this means the bins are a nightmare to get in/out. The planning application just had one row, with plenty of space, although being side on that wouldn't have worked well either! LBTH are going to get planning enforcement onto it.
Street Litter and Full Litter Bins
The council are going to replace lots of our street litter bins with “Big Belly" ones which compact the litter, hold around 8 times as much and even text the council automatically when they are getting full.
Around 9-12 of these are going to be installed (including the four lower Grove Road bus stops; outside Costa, Starbucks, Nando's and KFC; two between the Greedy Cow and Coffee Room; and the Onyx House bus stop). This should happen within a couple of months.
Eurobins for the businesses on Grove Road
The council seem to have as many reasons for not doing this as I have for not getting up in the morning. Something to return to post local-elections (the bins that is).
The good news is the council have come and jet washed the pavement outside all the businesses and it looks much better. Cheers!
Get LYN on to it
I have reported some of the issues folk emailed in, using the LYN App (Love Your Neighbourhood) which is on both Android, iPhone. You can also just use a “regular” online form. It would be great if folk used this to report problems.
The Last Resort - Shame the council on Twitter
If you are reading this on the Meotra website then if you look to the left (<--) you’ll see we’ve tried to shame the council into action on some things. I don’t like this approach, and only use it if a stalemate/brick wall has been reached:
- The crudely fenced-off hole in the pavement on the corner of Mile End Rd and Tredegar Sq. has been there for months. LBTH say “It ain’t ours, tell TfL” and, you guessed it, TfL say: “It ain’t ours, tell LBTH”. This game of Wiff-Waff between authorities has left MEotra with a sore neck.
- The Black Bin Bags in Pink Wheelie Bins phenomena - Pink Bin Men come and won’t empty the bins with black bags in them; then Black Bin Men come and won’t take the black bags out of the pink wheelie bins. This has gone on for weeks on Grove road. It is the sort of thing Michael Rosen might put to verse.