Frustrated neighbours say a south London council has not taken effective action to tackle a fly-tipping hotspot despite years of complaints.
People living near Harling Court in Battersea said they have been reporting issues caused by people who do not live at the apartment block repeatedly dumping their waste and fly-tipping at the bins to Wandsworth Council since 2021.
Neighbours told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) people’s unauthorised use of the site causes the bins to overflow, with waste piling up around them, which attracts vermin and has become a health hazard on a route busy with children and families.
Council responses criticised
They said they have struggled to get responses from the council to their complaints over the years, and it has not yet taken effective action using CCTV, enforcement and restricting access to the bins to resolve the issue.
They said the authority added extra bins earlier this month, which they warned would only encourage more unauthorised waste dumping.
The bins belong to Harling Court, which was built as a council block, and are next to Chadwick House and Latchmere Leisure Centre.
Resident concerns
One resident told the LDRS the bins were “constantly overfilled” and the site had become a “health hazard”, with foxes spreading the rubbish around further.
He said: “The place has become a hotspot for fly-tipping. Every day of the week you will find anything dumped in there. People just pass by, dump mattresses, furniture, other kinds of waste, garden waste.
“It’s really bad and what happens is it spills onto the street where all the families, all the kids, walk towards the leisure centre, and you can imagine with the heat it does smell. It’s really unbearable.”
The resident described how there was an “erosion of trust” between the council and neighbours, who had been chasing the authority for action and found it difficult to get responses.
“It’s the fact that the site has been repeatedly misused since at least 2021 and the council has not addressed the underlying problem,” he said. He added the council’s intervention earlier this month “failed as we predicted because we specifically warned that extra bins would create more capacity for uncontrolled dumping and the council installed them anyway”.
Residents asked for the council to install CCTV overlooking the area and enforce fly-tipping rules by issuing people who break them with fines, along with restricting access to the bins so only Harling Court residents can use them.
Another resident said: “The more bins there are, the more people who just come and use them, so we were trying to explain that you need to find a way to restrict the access to those bins so that people that don’t live there are not able to dispose their waste. They will be discouraged and eventually they will stop coming there.”
She added: “The smell obviously the last few weeks was horrible, especially with the heat and everything, and it’s just unsightly. It’s really not nice to live here anymore.”
Council statement
A Wandsworth Council spokesperson said: “We have heard residents’ concerns and recognise that there have been recurring issues with waste being left around the bin site at Harling Court.
“In response, we have increased waste and recycling capacity, installed new bin enclosures and improved signage. We will also be introducing deployable CCTV to help deter and identify those responsible for the misuse of the site, as we believe the issue is being caused by people who do not live in the blocks. And we will shortly be writing to neighbouring properties asking residents not to use the Harling Court bin facilities.
“Keeping our streets and estates clean is a priority for the council and we will continue to monitor the situation closely and take action against those responsible.”
