A former councillor has said the streets of her area are becoming increasingly impassable due to persistent fly-tipping.
Rosemary Sales, who was a Labour councillor for Stamford Hill West until 2018, claims the issue is getting worse and has called on Hackney Council to take action urgently.
People also held a meeting last Wednesday (May 8) to share their disgust at the waste that litters their streets.
One woman said her partially sighted son frequently injures himself on rubbish on pavements and street corners.
Ms Sales, a former speaker of the council, said: “There was always an issue, but it’s become very noticeable.
“For people I know, they talk about it straight away as being the worst thing about living in the area.
“It becomes a bit of a vicious circle because people dump stuff, so then other people think that it’s a place to dump stuff.”
She added that local people want to see the council taking more action to tackle the problem, including installing CCTV in problem hotspots.
The former Labour politician claimed food waste left on street corners is a hygiene issue as well as an eyesore, attracting rodents and pests.
Safety for those who are less able bodied and parents with pushchairs was also an issue, she said.
Ms Sales, who has lived in Stamford Hill for more than 40 years, claims that without tougher action the problem will only become worse as population density increases.
She explained: “One of the problems is that if you’re in multiple occupation, there’s very little space for the bins, so that means people dump the rubbish on the streets.
“I think rubbish services are geared towards single occupancy homes but many in our area are not anymore.
“The council do send around leaflets so people should know. But there’s a very mobile population in the flats and I don’t think landlords give the information, so that’s an issue.”
Hackney Council has said it provides a “broad range” of waste and recycling services to keep streets free from fly-tipping.
But the authority acknowledged that there are still some people who continue to carry out fly-tipping, creating a “significant impact on our shared environment”.
A council spokesperson said it had run awareness and engagement campaigns to tackle the problem, including doorstep education drives and commercial waste action days.
Over the last financial year, Hackney Council says it carried out more than 1,800 fly-tipping investigations and handed out almost 500 fines for waste-related crimes.
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