Last night I took part in a council meeting as a member of the public. I pointed out that no one reads the council website and when I see sign posting in the plan I thought that meant actually doing something residents can see. For my question I asked why the council isn't doing anything?
I read out a post on fixmystreet.com from last Saturday
The Chairman invited an officer from the working group to answer. I said to the chairman that you're responsible for this.
The officer said that he will look into the problem on Blundell Road.
However the problem is much wider than Blundell Road. It's likely that he'll pass many fly tipping hotspots on his way there.
Labour said they raised this back in September. This is only partly true. The dossier from the ward councillor contained a few examples and was in fact last year September. In the following 12 months there's been some enforcement but no explaining so residents are unaware of the enforcement and unaware of what to do or what if anything the Council is doing.
There was some positive response to fixmystreet. For some time the council stopped taking reports from there. It's likely they will reverse this decision and scrap their own system and use fixmystreet as a sole system for reports such as these.
I pointed out how painfully slow the progress is.
The officer said enforcement is part of it.
Labour asked about CCTV. I think the only way this would be possible would be to have around 50 cameras around every green space, basically on lamp posts. Residents could then capture any evidence and report it to the council.
Who would then continue to ignore it and take away the rubbish every now and then.
The problem is not just on Blundell Road. Rubbish has been dumped from North Road onto the river way on the wildlife walk. It's been there for nearly a year.
Here's the thing. Dean Cohen has been through countless officers and directors. he's been re elected on the promise of no overflowing bins, and no fortnightly collections, but then cut all recycling back to a weekly blue bin collection that people generally abuse with no fines for compulsory recycling. When it's contaminated they take away the bins for whole blocks of flats. Large items are often put in bins or dumped nearby rather than proper disposal.
When I moved here 2 years ago my neighbours asked me if I'd have a skip and suggested I dump any refurbishment waste by communal bins, as they did with their house hold bin bags and rat eaten furniture.
The Conservatives said vote for them or rats would come and they'd increase council tax. Rats have massively increased. They've deflected blame away from the council stating it's a national issue; but it is the responsibility of councils and the Conservatives must get their Central Government to allow the funds to reach these services.
It's on your watch, Councillor Dean Cohen (Golders Green).
