A40(M) Swakeleys slip road

Feb 2007

Fly tipped rubbish reported behind barrier at Swakelyes eastbound slip road from A40(M)

Council referred on to TfL road maintenance contractor who ignored their request to deal with it.

Later, after my representations, Council accepted that  they and not TfL were responsible for its removal.

April 2007

Fly tipping removed by Council 50 days and 13 e-mails after initial report to call centre.

March 2007

Accumulated litter on same section of A40(M)  reported.

At first Council said they would add the area to their A40 cleaning programme. 

After I pointed out they were in breach of EPA by not having this section of the road in their cleaning programme they said it had been missed in error from last litter pick.

After I asked for a copy of their cleaning programme under FOI Act it turned out that they did not have a documented programme.

Sept 2007

No indication of any litter picking during Summer

I therefore  gave the Council 5 days notice that I would take an action in the Magistrates Court under S 91 of the EPA to require them to clean the area.  See notice sent

Council carry of major clean up of area just in time to meet 5 day deadline.

July 2009

Since Sept 07 the Council have maintained these verges to a much higher standard of cleanliness.  The general satndard of litter picking along the whole of the Hillingdon section of the A40(M) still has much to be desired.

A4 (Colnbrook ByPass)

20th July 2009

This photo was taken  after I was contacted by a motorist who uses the road every day and was fed up by the fact that the section in Hillingdon never seemed to get litter picked.

Note the “Welcome to Hillingdon” sign.

Click here to see further photos of the area

22nd July 2009

In view of the experience I had had in 2007 with the A40(M) she decided to e-mail the Borough Solicitor giving the Council 5 days notice to clear the area or face an action under S91 of the Environmental Protection Act.

Click here to see the text of her notice to LBH

24th July 2009

Council send in 3 operatives and a truck to clean area!!!

29th July 2009

Uxbridge Gazette published an aritcle “Residents furious at rubbish dump welcome to Hillingdon”.   Click here to read article

It included the following comment from the Council  “ The Council takes fly tipping very seriously and investigates incidents reported and we are looking into this particluar situation”

I therefore e-mailed the LBH Chief Executive to say that my photographs were evidence that the dirty condition of the area was not due to recent fly tipping but to the build up of litter over a considerable period




 

31st July 2009

I recieved a reply from Colin Russell, LBH Manager - Waste Division in which he accepted that “the area was a mess” and that the problem “related to general litter”. The area had apparently not been allocated to a team following road works and this had now been rectified.

I visited the area once again and took some more photos including the one on the right.

The cleaning carried out on 24th July had simply not got to grips with the sheer volume of rubbish that had accumulated.

I e-mailed Colin Russell to point this out and copied in the motorist who had issued LBH with the S91 asking her to give the Council a further week to clean the area.

I also pointed out that the adjacent Speedbird Way, which was part of the S91 complaint, had  not even been touched.

I asked when the changes  to the cleaning schedules had taken place after which the Council had ceased cleaning the area.
 

August 5th 2009

A letter was published in the Gazette from Kathy Sparks, LBH Deputy director of environment and consumer protection saying that “ ..we received a complaint about litter on the A4 Colnbrook bypass on July 23rd, and an inspection was carried out on the same day. The litter was cleared the following day.”

It can be seen from the photos taken on 31st July above that while some litter picking took place on 24th only a fraction of the litter was cleared away.

August 6th

I took some further photos one of which is shown here on the right. 

August 7th

I wrote to Hugh Dunnachie, LBH Chief Executive pointing out that only a fraction of the litter had been cleared and that Speedbird Way had been ignored.

18th August

He replied apologising for the fact that this section of the A4 had not been cleaned since March 2009. He said that the land behind the crash barriers in Speedbird Way were not the responsibility of the Borough but were clean anyway and did not warrant enforcement action against the owners.

20th August

We wrote again to Hugh Dunnachie asking amounst other things what will the Council now do to get the owners of Speedbird Way to remove the offending litter and maintain the area in an acceptably clean state?

28th August

Raj Alagh, the Borough Solicitor e-mailed to say he promised to send you a substantive response to our letter to Mr Dunnachie.

17th February 2010

We wrote to Fran Beasley pointing out we had recieved nothing back from Mr Alagh and she has promised to expedite a response