Fordhook and Byron Rubbish

Key contacts who residents should get in touch with to complain about this issue are listed here:

Fly-tipping and rubbish dumping:

EnviroCrime Unit

Contact: Waheed Yusuf

Waheed.Yusuf@ealing.gov.uk

Rats:

Environmental Health Unit

Contact: Roni White and Rita Darbar

Roni.white@ealing.gov.uk

Rita.darbar@ealing.gov.uk

Local Ward Councillors

John.gallagher@ealing.gov.uk

Liz.brookes@ealing.gov.uk

Yvonne.johnson@ealing.gov.uk

Councillor Leader

Jason.stacey@ealing.gov.uk

 There has been a persistent rubbish dumping problem in the Fordhook

Avenue / Station Parade / Byron Road area for at least the last 3 years.

 There are three specific hotspots:

(a) where the small lane behind the Station Parade group of shops comes out onto Fordhook Avenue / Byron Road. This is the main problem site;

(b) where the long lane behind Byron Road comes out onto Fordhook Avenue /Station Parade;

(c) at the rear of a number of premises on the lane running behind Byron Road.

- Bags of household refuse are being dumped every day at all three of these sites, particularly site (a).

- There has also been a persistent rat problem in the lane behind Byron Road (site (c)) which rises to serious proportions every summer, requiring the Council to poison the lane. These rats overrun the back gardens of the

houses on the south side of Byron Road, and have also infested the flats over certain shops along Uxbridge Road.

- The persistent rubbish-dumping problem and the rat problem are obviously related (cause and effect etc) but each problem is managed by a different unit within Ealing Council: this leads to the usual lack of coordination in addressing the issue. The EnviroCrime unit, which deals with the fly-tipping and rubbish-dumping, won't address the rat problem; the Environmental Health unit, which deals with rats, won't address the fly-tipping problem. It took the Environmental Health Unit over 4 months to address the latest outbreak of the rat problem after they were first advised of it in May 2006.

- A local resident, an Ealing magistrate (JP), who lives in Byron Road, has been in weekly e-mail contact with the Council about these problems since August 2005.

- Local ward councillors have taken no interest in the problem, despite numerous contacts with them about it. None of the three councillors for the ward has engaged with it at all, short of one of them sending a couple of

"something must be done" e-mails to Council staff.

- The new Council Leader, Jason Stacey, visited the site in October 2006, expressed his serious concern about the problem, and asked Council officers for an immediate action plan to address it.

- So far that "action plan" has involved the erection of two signs saying "Do Not Litter: Maximum Fine £50,000" at site (a). As the resident predicted when this suggestion was put forward, these signs have had no effect whatsoever. Absolutely none. Offenders continue to dump their household refuse under the signs every day of the week.

- Council officers also said that as part of the "Action Plan" they would search the bags of rubbish to identify offenders and issue them with fines (Fixed Penalty Notices). There is no news of whether this has happened. If

it has, the fines have had absolutely no effect as the rubbish continues to mount up on a daily basis.

- The resident asked for details of those who had been fined for fly-tipping in the summer of 2006 so that he could consider taking civil proceedings against them. Council officials told him that the Data Protection Act forbade them for releasing any details of those who had been fined for breaking the law in this way.

- Local residents are disgusted at this problem which is being caused by a number of inconsiderate neighbours who don't mind living in the filth that these conditions create, and who have no interest in maintaining a clean

neighbourhood for all to enjoy. The problem has increased markedly since 2004 but the Council has never once adopted any measures which proved effective in dealing with it. The only measures adopted by the Council have been completely worthless: the problem has grown rather than receded.

- The problem will only be resolved through a combination of the following:

* Robust fining and prosecution of identified offenders;

* Introduction of wheelie bins at high density refuse build-up sites;

* Neighbourhood visits by local police and informal warnings to all residents by the police that prosecutions will result if the offending continues;

* CCTV may need to be installed to gather sufficient evidence of offending in order to permit successful prosecutions to be brought against the offenders.

- Ultimately the problem will only be taken seriously by Council officers if enough local residents complain on a continuing basis to the relevant people (see contact details below), insisting on effective action to resolve

it. Having clean streets and a rat-free environment is a minimum service which residents have a right to expect from their local authority given the level of Council Tax we are paying to that authority.