THE SALFORD DUMPING DILEMMA - PART ONE

It has been over FOUR years now since I first realised that there was a growing problem in Salford, one which has only gotten worse as cuts to services bite and bin collections have become more infrequent. 

Over those years I have seen it all, from an entire garden shed dumped on a street behind the Ashley Brook to the proverbial kitchen sink complete with unwashed cutlery dumped in the middle of a roundabout. Looking at and removing rubbish has become a bit of a hobby I would rather not partake in but am strangely addicted too.

For me it started with the simple act of trying to get a smelly bin bag removed from the back entry of my mums house in Weaste. The bag was what the council would now term 'Contaminated Rubbish' which effectually means it was a mix of food stuffs, plastics, metals and packaging etc..

As one of the neighbours had placed it at the side of the bin, the refuse collectors refused (No pun intended) to take it and so it was left in situ. My mum being the neighbourly person she was took it upon herself to sort through it and place all of the items into the right bins, mainly just to get rid of it, as she lived at the end house which was the focal point for the bin collections.

A few days later another bag appeared along with several boxes, the night after that another bag turned up and then another and another. In the end there was a pile of bags at the side of her home and the Bin Men were refusing to take them as they were all 'Contaminated'. 

At this point I got involved and called the Council to ask if someone would come out and remove it, I was told that someone would be out the following day and it would be gone. Two weeks and several calls later it was still there and still smelling. The Bin Men were adamant that they would not take it and so a very angry telephone call was placed to the council with the threat of going to the local news outlet with the photos.

Low and behold the very same day a nice man in a truck turned up and the now mountain of rubbish was removed.

UNTIL a few hours later when a bag was placed at the end of the entry... and then another... and well you guessed it the problem was back.

By this time I had moved out of the area to Winton but my kids were still in school in Weaste and so I ventured there daily, on my journey too and from schools each day I started to notice that the problem was not just exclusive to my mums street but was one which was widespread across the area.

As time went on I could not help but notice it and that some of the bags were being left for upwards of a month at a time, so I started reporting them on the Council website. They would go on and I would get an email confirming but shortly afterwards they would mysteriously go missing or be marked as job done when it clearly had not.

So I headed onto social media to see if others were noticing the same thing as I was. The response was not what I expected as people flooded my post with photos and stories of bags being dumped for months at a time and left to rot even after being reported. Some of the stories people were posting were shocking, almost as shocking as the photos accompanying them.

So I decided to start documenting the rubbish myself AND most importantly to try and understand why it was happening, who it was dumping it and why. 

Within a few days I noticed in this particular area one glaringly obvious thing, most of the rubbish was being dumped at the end of Alley Ways (Entry's for us Salford Folk), more so the gated ones. It seemed that where ever there were terrace houses with Entry's, there was a corresponding issue with bag dumping.

There were a few anomalies in which some streets seemed to not have the issue BUT I quickly started to understand that there was another underlying problem that added to the problem. 

The majority of the streets that did not have the problem seemed to be those with a far higher level of home owners and less private landlords, neighbour's knew each other and it was in their interests to keep their own areas clean and tidy as they owned their homes and would be most likely living in that area for a long time.

In other areas that were predominately privately rented properties the situation was not so well. I noticed that there seemed to have a fairly high churn rate of residents living in these rented properties, they stayed a few months and then moved out for whatever reason.

These particular properties had an additional problem, mainly that of household items being dumped. Things like cookers, fridges, chairs, beds, mattresses etc.. To me at least it seemed like when a family moved out, either they or the landlords would just take whatever they were not wanting to the end of the road and dump it. 

As I grew to know the areas better I noticed that whenever a property became vacant there was usually some kind of household goods dumped at the end of the road. I kind of figured it was related.

Other areas were different though, some were not so easily explained. One particular area was Weaste Lane, in particular the lower part of it where the Post Office and the Chemist are. I noticed seemingly big three story homes (4 with the converted cellar) which had the same issue.

At first I assumed they were large single homes but after investigating a little further I discovered that many were multi occupancy homes or shared houses, with rooms being let to students etc.. These properties had a number of individual people dwelling in them , all of whom seemingly shared communal bins. Once those were full then the issue of getting rid of rubbish was a problem.

You guessed it, the rubbish would end up at the end of the gated entries in bin bags which the bin men refused to remove.

On the whole though I discovered that each area within Weaste had its own unique problem, and this therein is the issue and why it is not so straight forward to fix. One fix does not suit all.

I see Salford Council getting a lot of stick on social media and although some of it is seriously justified (The reporting system's failings etc..) some of it is equally not.

Most of the rubbish dumped can easily be sorted into the correct separate bags/bins. For some it seems that it is just too much effort and not their problem, so even though they are provided with the correct bins they are just too plain lazy to make the effort. We really can not blame the Council for that, bins are provided to most households and it is their choice that they don't use them correctly.

That said there is also another issue in play in which bins are left out long after 'Bin Day', in which time others have seized the opportunity to get rid of a few spare bags by dumping in them. So they end up filled with 'Contaminated' rubbish and the Bin Men refuse to empty them.

In my view this is where the Council are failing as much more should be done to ensure that bins are removed and taken back into properties within an allotted time. Not only do left out bins fuel the temptation to dump rubbish in them but they also become a hazard to people trying to get past them as they block pavements.

It is kind of like an open invitation for people to dump in those bins and more often than not as the above photo shows very clearly people will seize upon the chance to get rid of those bags they have been storing up.

No article on bins however could go without making mention to the Councils changes to collections, in particular the issue of reduced black bin collections. I see people mentioning this issue more than most and there are two sides to the story. The emphasis for the Council is on recycling as it reduces the cost of having to landfill rubbish. That said not all rubbish can be recycled, those with children for instance will have a much larger problem as the only bin that disposable nappies can go into is the black bin. Some would argue that people can fix that issue by using the old Cloth nappies which is fantastic in theory but not so practical in real life as in this day and age both parents are often working to make ends meet and time is precious and limited. Likewise things like yogurt pots can not be recycled as the recycling centre's can't cope with them.

This leads to many families unable to cope with the current three week collections and others in different situations wondering what the fuss is about. We need to remember and understand that each family makeup is dynamic and different and it stands to reason that so is the refuse they produce.

Something I think Salford Council should be paying more attention too and accepting and addressing. You really can not just treat Salford as a whole when it has different types of property and families living within it.

So ultimately who is at fault here?

Well in my four years of looking at this problem I have concluded the following.....

The fault lies with us all, but there is no one single thing that you can point at and say 'That's it'..

Each of us should be taking pride in our areas, we should be reporting ALL and ANY rubbish we see dumped on the streets. At the moment it seems that many accept it as they can do nothing to alter it. DON'T ACCEPT IT.

Complain and whinge about it until things get done, it's what I have been doing for the past four years and I can tell you I have had more rubbish removed in Salford than I care to think about. You are not a Whinger, YOU are a Salfordian, be proud of that and don't let others drag your area down.

Those who can not be bothered to separate their rubbish into the correct bins should be ashamed of themselves and the Council should be far far more proactive in ensuring they are brought into line and pulling their weight.

Salford Council, get it into your heads that putting up signs does not work and is not the best use of tax payers money. It may be the easiest option and the cheapest option but it is far from the most effective.

As you can see from the photos I have posted along with this article (All taken in Weaste and Seedley today), many have signs warning against fly tipping and all of them without question are being ignored day in day out.

Salford Council needs to accept that this is NOT a fix and it clearly does not work, people are not taking a blind bit of notice and it has no effect whatsoever other than costing money. The evidence is right there for all to see. 

In Weaste and Seedley a solution was suggested in which large bins were placed in specific problem areas, it would work well if done correctly. However it is not and the failure here is that those bins have not been placed in the correct areas to be effective. Take for instance the photo bellow. This one has been placed on Seedley Park road facing the Park, when the issue is 500 yards away around the entry ways of Seedley's terraced houses. This bin is empty when just around the corner there are streets filled with bin bags. The same could be said for the second photo whereupon one has been placed outside the butty shop facing the tram stop in Weaste, far from where the problem is on Foster Street and Borough Road. This bin once more was empty when I checked it, as around the corner there are piles of bin bags strewn around the streets. A little common sense and people who know and understand the problem would go a long way here and cut down on many of the problems people have in these areas.

Salford Council need to take a long look here, learn to understand the problem (It took me a long time) and work on solutions that actually fix them. It is all great that they have placed large bins in certain areas but they will not be effective unless they are in the correct places and where needed most. In my view there should also be far more of them for people to use.

The truth of the matter is we could all be doing more, each and everyone of us could be taking pride in the area we live in, if you see rubbish, report it. If the council are not doing anything about it then contact your Councillor and ask them to intervene on your behalf.

Most of them get slated for doing nothing but unless they are aware of the problem they can not get it fixed. I started off venting my anger at Councillors but in the end understood that in most cases they DO try and get things moved, sadly as soon as that happens the lazy section of society choose to continue to blight the area and just dump even more. 

Salford Council should be doing far more to solve these problems as at now over £350 per tonne to landfill rubbish then it is in their interests as well as ours to get as many recycling as possible.

Some don't see it as their problem, why should they? and that becomes our problem as the more money we have to pay out to clean up after these people then the less we have for other services.

At the same time the Council need to understand the bigger picture and how these changes affect individual areas and specific families, its not a simple case of one solution fits all.

More help should be given to those who need it and if they are to continue with these collections then they need to accept that they need to increase the frequency street cleaning. Large families and those with young children can opt for a larger bin but most say its like jumping through hoops trying to get one.

So in short and to sum up....

We as a City need to do more to report things needing removing, if it does not get done then raise it with your local Councillor, if that fails then by all means share it on social media sites and highlight it. Unless people know of the problem they can not come together to get rid of it.

The Council needs to be more proactive in dealing with offenders, they should also be a lot more proactive in searching out dumped rubbish and removing it so that it does not become a problem in the first place, they can't have eyes and ears everywhere though and so rely on the public to inform them, so if you spot something then let them know as its no use expecting someone else to do it as they may be expecting someone else too etc...

Those who are causing this problem need addressing and dealing with, if you see someone or know someone dumping rubbish then they are basically crapping on your doorstep, blighting your area and inviting vermin onto the streets. What's more is the cost of these cleanups come directly out of Council funding, the same funding you pay into when you pay your council taxes. This reduces the money available for other much more vital things we need in Salford.

Accept that you do pay Council Tax but those who are dumping this rubbish as basically taking the hard earned money you pay from your pockets and may as well just be sending that to the tip instead.

Councillors need to be more proactive on Social Media where things like this are being reported as a final resort because they feel no one else is listening, some Councillors are fantastic at it and have made huge changes in some areas, some less so.

This is NOT a problem the bin men have made, its unfair to slate them when their numbers are being cut to shreds and street cleaning services are under increasing pressure to perform with dwindling staff and resources.

Salford Council need to take a long hard look at the system for reporting rubbish, as well as the response times for its removal, they are shamefully inadequate.

Fortunately I have never been alone in my complaining about this problem, too many posts to count have appeared on local social media sites over the years, people who live this City just wanting it to sparkle and shine. Long may they continue to demand clean streets and a decent level of service, without them reporting problems and trying to get them fixed then this Salford we love so much would be in a lot worse state than it is now. They are the unseen and unpaid workforce acting as they eyes of the Council, reporting that which needs reporting for the benefit of their communities. Without them standing up and making their voices heard we would quite literally be knee deep in.....

And so ends PART ONE of my THREE part look into what is just the tip of the iceberg of this problem.