Quick fix for the overflowing rubbish at the end of the towpath at Strand on the Green

The bin at the end of the towpath at Strand on the Green on Sunday (5 July)

Strand on the Green gets a new bin

We reported last week on the state of the bin at the end of the towpath at Strand on the Green, which regularly looks like this by the end of the weekend.

READ ALSO: Picturesque Strand on the Green

The riverside is popular for visitors to come and walk along the towpath as well as locals, so it gets more use than most.

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

‘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 and Sunday 28 June

We asked the new Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Enforcement and Recycling, Cllr Amy Croft if she could do something about it.

She came back within a few days with a solution. Hounslow Highways will install a new bin alongside the existing one. There used to be two bins here but one was set alight by vandals and burned down, and one bin by itself has been inadequate to cope with the volume of rubbish.

“I have asked Hounslow Highways to install a new bin to cope with the overflow”, she told us.

Why they did not just replace it straight away when the old one burned down is unclear.

Chiswick Riverside councillor Amy Croft out on the bins

Cllr Croft goes out with the bin lorries to understand her new portfolio

Amy has been out with the bin crews learning about how rubbish and recycling works in the borough, swapping the bright red robes and gold chain of office she used to wear as Mayor of Hounslow during her term of office last year for a bright yellow high vis vest.

“I want to make sure I properly understand how all of the services that sit within the portfolio work in order to help make service improvements and iron out any issues and so I have been out and about with some of the services in the last few weeks”, she said.

Her portfolio covers overs roads, bins, parking, enforcement and our regulatory services, such as licensing, trading standards and animal control.

She has also been involved this week in the outcry over the pubs along Strand on the Green being told to remove their tables and chairs from the riverside.

After Green Party councillor Rick Rowe asked for the pubs’ licenses to be reviewed and the council’s licensing officers told The City Barge and the Bell & Crown to take their tables in or face fines, she persuaded them to give the pubs a grace period while they applied for licences.

READ ALSO: Council relent over ban on outside seating at Strand on the Green pubs

The way to report problems such as overflowing bins or fly-tipping is to go online to Fix My Street, which Hounslow Highways monitors.