Transforming London’s Dirtiest Borough.

It was only a couple of years ago that Newham was branded in My London as London’s dirtiest borough. However, it has recently trumpeted its spectacular improvement in reducing fly-tips.

We’d like to say well done. This is no small achievement. Of course, you did let it get bad in the first place, but reducing the number of fly-tips is creditable.

Remembering Disraeli’s dictum, (“lies, damned lies and statistics”), we thought that we’d take a look behind the figures.

A BBC report notes that Newham was amongst the most improved boroughs for the reduction of fly-tips. They claim a drop of 33%.

The accompanying pictures are of mountains of dumped cookers and washing machines; or builders’ waste.

We are not sure that this is what is being reduced. Our suspicion is that there is more than a little spin being put on this story.

Here is what it says on the Newham website.

And here’s what Labour’s own website says about it.

As you will see in the headlines, Newham’s claim on its own website is a 72% reduction, the report goes on to say that this was just on one street. The BBC report offers a more conservative figure of 33%.

For years, Newham Council has asked, nay, demanded that residents who live in flats above shops on main roads, put out their refuse between certain hours in the morning and the early evening. These bags are then collected by Newham refuse workers.

As the picture shows, they can be unsightly. However, they are placed in a prescribed spot on the instruction of the council. To describe them as “fly-tips” is a bit of a stretch. Not a wardrobe, a mattress, not a fridge or a pile of builder’s rubble in sight.

Residents (and shopkeepers?) are now being required to place their rubbish in one of these.

This certainly seems to be a tidier alternative. It will be interesting to see whether the new green containers will be sufficient to accommodate all of the rubbish that is being disposed of. Our suspicion is that the supply of rubbish will always be greater than the capacity to contain it. Nonetheless, this seems a positive move to improve the quality of pavements.

It will, it appears, cost an additional £40m. The aim, over four years is to cut “fly-tipping” by 50%

If Newham had badged this as an improvement to the rubbish collection service, or tidying up the streets, there could be no problem. It would seem to be expensive, but the aims (and hopefully the delivery) were positive.

But it is being badged as a cut in fly-tips.

To be clear, Newham has instructed residents when and where to put their domestic waste. Newham then collects these at times specified by the council. People following the council’s instructions are now being labelled as “fly-tippers”.

We suspect that it is nothing more than the incumbent regime seeking to garner good publicity, at the expense of the whole truth.

The plans seem good, (but expensive). Hopefully, they will clean up the streets. Why does the mayor have to go overboard just in the search of a good headline? And residents might reasonably ask, are there any plans to cut down on, to identify and prosecute real fly-tippers?