‘Keep Fitzrovia Clean’ campaign is asking residents and businesses to be ‘considerate’

Camden Council, its waste contractor Veolia, and The Fitzrovia Partnership, have been running a poster campaign to “Keep Fitzrovia Clean” over the past few weeks.

“It is illegal to dump your waste on the street,” says Camden.

“This includes recycling and rubbish bags that are put out at the wrong time or in the wrong place.”

If rubbish or recycling is dumped or put out at the wrong time, those responsible “could receive a £400 fine for fly-tipping”.

Camden says residents and businesses must put bins, bags, and boxes, out for collection at street level “within one metre of the entrance of your property”.

The instruction for residents is clear: put your bags out between 9pm and 7am for collection. In many streets this means putting out rubbish, recycling and food waste on a Sunday evening after 9pm for collection from 7am on Monday morning. Or get a £400 fine.

But what about businesses? Bags are put out at all times of day. And there is an awful lot of them. Complete with bin juice leaking out all over the pavement — often outside someone else’s property or at the base of a tree.

There is no one set time and it varies from company to company. When we took a walk about at 7pm on Monday 4 March we found piles of rubbish in Tottenham Street, Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Street and Warren Street. An hour later it was the same.

One resident told us: “It’s a bit of a shambles”.

Camden’s Keep Fitzrovia Clean campaign appears to be doomed to failure.

In addition, Camden’s residential, commercial waste and clear bag recycling collection did not happen in Warren Street, Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy Square and Tottenham Street as expected on Monday 4 March. Collection was however in progress on Tuesday morning — 24 hours late.

Food waste was, however, collected on Monday morning on time.

Across the neighbourhood bags were left out for nearly 36 hours, with many ending up getting broken and nibbled at by animals overnight. In many places rubbish was strewn all over the pavements making the already challenging job for the street sweepers even more difficult.

This happens from time-to-time if there is a problem and collections run 24 hours — or more — late.

By 9.30am on Tuesday morning the streets were looking pretty clean with most bags off the streets, after the residential and business collection was done by Camden’s contractor Veolia, and by the private collectors overnight. But by 11.30am the rot had set in again with bags piling up, mostly commercial waste and recycling.

Camden says businesses should put their rubbish out “shortly before collections” but admitted that it is difficult to control.

Both Camden and The Fitzrovia Partnership offer a waste and recycling collection service and would prefer that local businesses used one or the other’s collections in an effort to consolidate the removals and vehicle movements.

However, the market for collection of waste and recycling is so competitive that a number of firms are able to operate in the neighbourhood, meaning numerous waste vehicles rattling around at all times of day and night.

There is a lot of talk about recycling and waste consolidation but little in the way of any action.

Councillor Adam Harrison, cabinet member for a sustainable Camden, said the council is trying to get businesses and residents to change their behaviour.

“The campaign is asking residents and businesses to be considerate with the impact their waste has on the streets of Fitzrovia.

“For residents, this means placing bags out at the specified times each week while businesses should only do so shortly before collections.

“The large number of companies that operate in the area is not something the council can control, unfortunately, and having a multiplicity of firms involved has a negative effect.

“We are grateful to Fitzrovia News readers for the part they play in addressing this issue.”

However, Fitzrovia News understands that Camden environmental enforcement officers carry out spot checks on “enviro-crime” and have fined many businesses for dumping, with some repeat offenders being issued with fines of thousands of pounds.

The problem of business waste and recycling management is also recognised by The Fitzrovia Partnership, which has run a business improvement district (BID) on the Camden side of Fitzrovia since 2012.

In February the Fitzrovia BID said “we are visiting selected businesses around Fitzrovia to promote a pledge campaign to do the right thing with their business waste”. Businesses who sign up to the pledge will receive a sticker to place in their window.

“We acknowledge the challenges in waste management within the area and are actively working with our members to address these issues collaboratively,” said a spokesperson.

“The Partnership is committed to improving waste collection times and is pleased to announce the upcoming introduction of a new contribution to waste management, along with a comprehensive recycling scheme.

“In the coming weeks, residents and businesses will benefit from a newly funded litter-picking service, fully supported by The Fitzrovia Partnership and its membership. An electric [utility vehicle] equipped with a washing lance is on order, set to operate a minimum of five days per week will be introduced to the area.”

A survey carried out by the Fitzrovia BID in November 2022 found that, as a whole, businesses wanted rubbish and recycling collections at various times throughout the day.

Six percent of businesses wanted to put their rubbish out between midnight and 6am, which would mean collections in the early hours of the morning, and causing a disturbance to nearby residents.

When businesses were asked about “banded collections” — two hour slots throughout the daytime and evening from 7am to 10am, 3pm to 6pm, and 9pm to 11pm — respondents were in favour of all three. But that would still mean bags being left on the street for up to nine hours during the daytime and evening.

Unlike elsewhere in the borough, Camden does not offer time banded collection times in Fitzrovia. However, some of the time banded collection times are between 1am and 3am, which would cause night time disturbance to residents.

For the time being the job of keeping Fitzrovia streets clean remains a difficult task.

Camden Council: Recycling and rubbish collections for residents and businesses.