Love where you live: City residents tackle ongoing litter problem

Ted Peskett, Local Democracy Reporter

Nearly every morning before work, Martyn Thomas comes face to face with an unsightly mess outside his shop.

The rubbish that builds up in and around the litter bin on the corner of Clarence Hardware & DIY Centre on Corporation Road in Grangetown often consists of worse things than just regular household waste.

Nappies, food waste and sometimes used condoms are left strewn over the floor after seagulls finish tearing apart the bin bags that have been left to pile up.

“It is just minging, absolutely minging,” said Martyn, speaking of his frustration of having to put up with a problem that has been on this street for years.

“Litter outside the business is intermittent.

“You can have days where there’s nothing and then you can come in successively one day after the next for a whole week and it’ll be there every day.”

Martyn said it can take him anything between 10 and 40 minutes to clean the mess up outside his shop. It depends how bad it gets.

He added: “There’s no attempt to put it in the bin.

“It’s just dumped by the bin. A bit of broken furniture, the odd toilet pan… anything and everything.”

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Widespread issue

The issue of bins being abused in this way doesn’t just affect the area outside Clarence Hardware & DIY Centre.

Litter bins across Corporation Road have been affected in the same way.

It’s symptomatic of a wider problem that Cardiff as a whole faces – that of littering and fly-tipping.

Martyn said he sometimes witnesses drivers throwing litter out of their cars and onto the street.

He and other residents are also aware of certain hotspots, like the corner of Channel View Road, that are blighted by fly-tipping.

He said: “That’s like a dumping ground there. You come in in the morning and everything turns up.

“It’s got to be a repeat offender. It’s got to be the same people because it’s furniture, mattresses, sofas, chairs.

“In what world did that ever become… acceptable?”

Clarence Hardware & DIY Centre is one of the older shops on Corporation Road. Martyn said he’s worked there for about 40 of the 66 years it’s been there.

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Change

Recalling what it was like growing up in Grangetown, he said: “It was spotless. It was absolutely spotless. We didn’t have all of the bins on the corner because we didn’t need them.

“There was none of this gathering the leaves and dirty paint work. The houses were pristine and they were looked after from top to bottom.

“The outside was swept, the leaves went into the burner bin. Out came the water in the morning, [they] bleached, scrubbed the lot. It was literally gleaming.”

Grangetown isn’t without hope though, as the area already has a strong base of volunteers who offer their time to pick the that builds up on their streets.

Keep Grangetown Tidy, launched in 2015, organises monthly litter picks that meet at locations across Garngetown.

Martyn said he sees some volunteers out more regularly than that, adding: “We have got a really good team of volunteers that go around. The Keep Grangetown Tidy crowd are fantastic.

“They’re out and about literally every morning with a litter picker and a bag. They walk miles, just picking up bits. They haven’t got to do it.”

Cardiff Council is doing its bit as well to try and clamp down on the issue of littering and fly-tipping in Grangetown as it is in other parts of Cardiff.

However, the frustration that it continues – and feels like its getting worse according to some residents – is all too clear among businesses and people who live there.

Dangerous driving

The other problem that residents in Grangetown say is blighting their community is dangerous driving.

Residents on Paget Street have their own campaign to try and get traffic calming measures installed and have already witnessed a couple of crashes there this year.

Ahead of a Cardiff Council by-election in Grangetown earlier this month, candidates from across the political spectrum mentioned dangerous driving, litter and fly-tipping as the main problems people want to see addressed.

Grangetown Labour News posted on its Facebook page that throughout its campaign “one message came through loud and clear: residents want cleaner streets and safer roads.”

Green Party candidate, Matt Youde, who eventually went on to win in the by-election, said calls for traffic safety improvements was a prominent message he picked up on the doorstep.

However, litter and fly-tipping were “by far” the biggest issues residents shared with him .

Further down Corporation Road, a resident who did not want to be named told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (aLDRS) how badly the bin opposite his house is abused.

He claims people use the litter bins on the street for household waste, either due to a lack of knowledge on how to correctly dispose of it or because they don’t have enough space in their own bins.

“People come from across the road and they don’t even care. They just throw the bins,” said the resident.

“It’s ridiculous. You can see the people and when you look at them throwing the bin they look at you [as if to say] ‘what are you looking at me for?'”

Recalling a time he confronted someone for dumping bags of rubbish by the bin, he added: “They go ‘It’s not your problem’.

“You are paying council tax, you are supposed to have a bin.

“[They say] ‘This is everybody’s bin, we can do whatever we like’.

“And it [the bin] stinks. It was a [hot] summer, so you can imagine it.

“But the council [workers] are good. They do two or three rounds a day and they pick it up.”

Seagulls

Similarly to what happens oppsoite Martyn Thomas’ shop, seagulls are known to tear open the bags that pile up and scatter their contents.

The resident said: “I don’t wake up, they [the seagulls] wake me up.

“You can imagine there are 50 or 60 of them outside. There are so many. It’s unbelievable and they are so annoying.

“Even though your windows are double glazed, still the sound doesn’t stop.”

Hassan Egeh of Wanaag Trading Limited on Corporation Road said on the issue of litter: “It has got worse.

“There has always been some, but for the last few months it’s getting very bad.

“Really, it is very difficult to stand.

“You come in in the morning and you find the whole place littered with all kinds of food waste… [and] bags and the seagulls are all coming and ripping them off and spreading it all over the place.”

On other streets as well, the problem of littering and fly-tipping is all too evident.

Walking down Clive Street, random bits of furniture and kitchen appliances like toasters and air fryers can be seen on the pavement.

Iqbal Ahmed, who has lived there for 20 years now, said one of the issues he sees that’s adding to the overall problem is people putting waste out in black bin bags after losing their recycling sacks.

He said: “They can get blown away by the wind or somebody picks up the wrong one.

“It’s just got worse in terms of littering, in terms of rubbish, in terms of dumping.

“We have the gates installed in the lanes which was supposed to help, but it’s just meant that people don’t dump in the lanes now they just dump in [plain] sight.

“You can walk up and down this road and you’ll just see so much crap that they just leave everywhere.”

Iqbal said he and his family regularly report issues with litter, but by the time council workers come to clean up the mess it’s been blown across the street and peoples’ homes.

He added: “My mum tries to keep the front of the house clean and tidy, but it’s a losing battle. You can’t win.”

Cardiff Council has launched a number of campaigns aimed at tackling the problem of litter in the city, like Love Where You Live which encourages people to litter pick in their community.

More recently, litter bins, including the ones on Corporation Road, have undergone a colourful makeover in order to try and get people to use them correctly.

However, there are residents – and now a local councillor – calling for tougher measures, like the installation of CCTV cameras to catch out fly-tippers.

Green councillor

Grangetown’s new councillor, Cllr Matt Youde, said: “We need more cameras on fly-tipping hotspots, and I’ll be working with residents and businesses in those parts of Grangetown to build the case for this.

“Finally, I’ll be finding out what has become of a fly-tipping and littering strategy worked on by Keep Grangetown Tidy – and put to the council – and see if we can use it as a blueprint for how the community and the Council can collaborate to solve issues and make Grangetown a better place to live for everyone.”

Cardiff Council said there are strict parameters on how CCTV is used and that a formal application must be submitted before installing cameras.

This would have to include various records and assesments, including proof that enforcement efforts have already been made.

A spokesperson for the local authority said: “CCTV can only be used effectively if the council can identify vehicle registrations linked to an offence.

“Images of individuals are of no use for enforcement, as we cannot determine their identity or place of residence.”

The LDRS also approached the three Labour councillors for Grangetown about the problem of litter and fly-tipping in the area.

When local councillors were asked about the same issue last year, Labour councillor, Cllr Lynda Thorne, said she and her fellow councillors understood and shared residents’ concerns “which in the main relate to individuals who are not presenting on the right day or in the correct manner”.

She added: “Love Where You Live teams do an amazing job litter-picking but we need to try to prevent the litter… getting onto the streets in the first place.

“So where I think we might get some added value is if there are volunteers who would be interested in being trained to do some of the education and awareness.

“Although this already happens frequently people are not at home when the teams call and so perhaps having local people assisting with that may help.

“I have already asked officers [if] they would consider a pilot to see if [this] would help.”

Despite the promise of anti-litter campaigns, council and police investigations into incidents of fly-tipping and the hope provided by selfless litter pickers, businesses and residents continue to wait for real change.

Warning

A Cardiff Council spokepserson said: “Fly-tipping is completely unnecessary — it harms the environment and costs taxpayers a significant amount of money each year.

“It is vitally important that residents understand, if you are paying someone to remove waste from your home, please ensure they are registered to do so — otherwise, you could end up in court.

“The Council provides an extensive kerbside collection service, so residents should not be dumping waste next to or in litter bins.

“Two recycling centres are also available for residents to dispose of larger items.

“Dumping waste in lanes is unacceptable. We operate an alleygating scheme in certain areas of the city.

“Specifically, in Clive Street Lane, the banking is overgrown and littered, but this is not Council land — it is owned by Network Rail.

“Network Rail regularly cuts back the grass and removes litter, and the Council routinely clears fly-tipping from the area.

“Our message to those who continue to damage the environment we all share is simple is stop, if you are caught, you will either receive a fixed penalty notice or face court action, which could result in a fine of up to £50,000 or six months’ imprisonment, depending on the severity of the case.

“If anyone spots fly-tipping, the most effective way to report it is via our website (www.cardiff.gov.uk/flytipping) or through the Cardiff Gov app.

“This ensures we receive an exact location and all the information necessary to investigate.”