During the last few years many businesses and residents on Pratt Street, Bayham Street and Camden Street, who are not residents of this estate, have been using our estate as a dump yard. They come inside our estate to use our bins and our communal areas as a dump yard by throwing bulky items such as mattresses, home and commercial appliances, used condoms, nappies full of human faeces, building waste, etc

This is a constant nuisance and it is disrespectful to all of our residents. Many emails have been sent to the council, some people and businesses have been warned but nothing have changed. Actually, the situation is getting worse because the businesses as well as the residents on the main streets are getting even more aggressive towards the residents of our estate. But why is this happening on our estate and why does Camden council allow it?

The reasons for fly-tipping inside our estate are many:

1. Profit: Many businesses do not want to have rubbish in front of their premises, especially when they have tables outside for their customers to enjoy their meals. So they either leave the commercial rubbish on the opposite side of the road (where there are no commercial properties) or inside our bins.
2. Convenience: The collection of rubbish from the street properties on Pratt Street is ONCE a week. So instead of having the rubbish in front of their properties for a week those residents have conveniently decided to dump them on our estate. See the collection times for a property on Pratt Street by clicking  here or here.
3. Ignorance : Some of them are not aware of the proper way to dispose their rubbish. So instead of checking the council’s website for information, they choose the easy option which is to dump their rubbish on our estate.
4. Incompetence: Camden Council’s incompetence to enforce the rules is breath taking. After they have been informed for many years in row about the problem with evidence and numerous witnesses, they are still writing pointless letters that have been ignored because the council has never taken any further action.
5. Incompetence 2: Veolia’s incompetence to mark the bins as “Household waste for residents Only”. Some of the bins are marked as Commercial Waste!!!
6. Selfishness: Many people who live on the street properties do not want their rubbish in front of their homes so they prefer to dump them on someone’s else front door.
7. Arrogance: Certain people even after the council’s warnings and the residents’ complaints, they are still disrespectful to us all.

The results of using the estate’s bins for all the rubbish are:

1. Bins get full quickly and residents of this estate can not longer dispose their own rubbish.
2. Rubbish are left outside the bins when the bins are full.
3. Non Residents are opening bin bags and creating a havoc around the bins. This leads to infestation problems.
4. Unhealthy and unsafe environment especially when human faeces, used condoms, nappies and other paraphernalia is  all over the area.
5. Infestation problems: When non residents open all the bags and throw the rubbish around the bins, the problem of infestation is getting worse. Only today (18-12-2021) someone had open all the bin bags in front of Billingley and the pavement was full of used condoms, nappies, face masks, food, etc
6. Creates a Broken window Theory (BWT) that states that visible signs of disorder and misbehaviour in an environment encourage further disorder and misbehaviour, leading to serious crimes. The principle was developed to explain the decay of neighbourhoods, but it is often applied to work and educational environments.

How do you solve this problem?

This problem needs to take into consideration the reasons why people doing this and what can be done to stop this practise which is a constant nuisance for the estate residents. It is necessary to sort out collection problems from Veolia, provide the necessary bins, educate people, enforce the rules, etc

In our opinion the following actions needs to be taken:

1. Inform all properties around the estate about the proper disposal for their rubbish.
2. Supply to those properties on the main streets the necessary bins for their rubbish and recycling.
3. Inform the residents or businesses on the main streets about collection times and dates.
4. Fix potential problems with the rubbish collections.
5. Enforce the rules for dumping rubbish on our estate. The signs on our estate mentions £2,500 penalties
6. Use temporary CCTV to capture the offenders and set an example.

What does Camden Council do instead?

Camden Council’s position is to send letters advising the offenders to stop throwing their rubbish. Unfortunately, this had zero effect because the people and the businesses know that Camden Council will not take any further action. The results? Residents safety and environment is violated every day which is a constant and deliberate nuisance. So the only option for them is to fight back.

Recently the situation got worse because the residents started to fight back. The rubbish are delivered back to their owners and this creates tensions and frustration. Many of these rubbish ending on the main roads and that creates additional problems to the whole area.

Properties on Pratt Street in particular are really bad. Most of them are using our estate for their rubbish and their dogs to foul the area. Many of them have been warned but they have ignored us. How many of those properties have the necessary bins in front of their properties instead of nice flowers?

What are our rights?

1. According to the signs that Camden Council has installed on our estate, penalties up to £2,500 can be issued.
2. This article from a solicitors’ website is interesting. Read the full article at this link: http://www.environmentlaw.org.uk/rte.asp?id=87
3. Camden Council’s “Local Environmental Quality Enforcement Policy” (pdf)

I quote from the council’s policy that states:

“Our decision on what level of enforcement action is necessary will take into account:

….

2) Intent of the offender. We will be more likely to prosecute where the offender knows that a course of action – whether of commission or omission – is likely to lead to a contravention of the law, but chooses to follow that course of action nonetheless
3) History of offending. We will be more likely to prosecute where we have evidence of a history of offences, even if these offences are not the subject of legal proceedings e.g. because they are past the legal deadline for bringing an action”

Have you witnessed any activities like that?

If you have witnessed activities like the above on our estate please contact us or complete our form below:

Name *

First

Last

Email *

Choose if you want to stay anonymous *

• I want to stay anonymous
• Please use my contact details

Your report will be sent to the Camden Council as part of our campaign to prevent the non residents to use us as a dump yard.

Who was throwing the rubbish? *Commercial propertyStreet PropertiesOther

How many times have you witnessed that?Only onceTwiceMultiple times

If you know the address of the person who dumped the rubbish please type it below

Tells us when & happened: *

Please provide a description of what happened and any evidence that we can use for taking further action. PLEASE send any photo or video evidence to info@curnockestate.com

Submit