Picturesque Strand on the Green

The bin at the end of the Strand on the Green tow path as it looked on Sunday 28 June

Hounslow Council, please empty the bin!

Strand on the Green in Chiswick is a lovely place to go for a walk along the River Thames on a summer’s day. Until that is, you get to the end of the towpath, where regularly on a Sunday the bin looks like this.

One of our readers wrote to us about this a month ago with a picture of how it looked on the last bank holiday – stuffed full, with rubbish overflowing all around it:

‘Hounslow council has abandoned Strand on the Green and the Riverside by not emptying bins at the weekend. Bank holidays are particularly bad as they skip Monday too. Polluting our river, encouraging foxes, spreading germs, all contributing to an eyesore in an area of natural beauty. Please name and shame them’.

The bin as it looked on Sunday 24 May

This particular bin gets more use than most as the towpath attracts a lot of visitors.

It is a personal bugbear of mine too, as I walk along there quite often. I know this has been a problem for a long time, but just to check, have been monitoring it on a few Sundays since she contacted us.

One Sunday the bin was empty, which was unexpected, but shows it is possible for Hounslow Highways to empty it at the weekend.

The other Sundays it has been full to overflowing. Hounslow Highways must know this, as they make the collections, and it has been an ongoing problem for a long time, so you might think they would change their bin collection schedule accordingly.

As I took my photograph on Sunday a couple with a baby who were looking for somewhere to bin their rubbish commented that it’s always like this every weekend.

As luck would have it, one of the three Chiswick Riverside councillors who represent Strand on the Green on Hounslow Council is Amy Croft, the newly appointed Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Enforcement and Recycling, which includes the management of waste.

The Chiswick Calendar has asked Amy if she can sort this out. She said:

“I am just investigating with officers, as I believe there were originally two bins at the site, but one was vandalised, I will look to see if this can be replaced.

“I would encourage residents to continue to report any issues, anywhere in the Borough through the Fix My Street app, as that helps the Council to build a detailed picture of where problems arise, and take action accordingly”.

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Photograph of the day by Joanna Raikes

Strand on the Green; photograph Joanna Raikes