Is Tooting dirty, disgusting and in need of some wheelie bins?

People fed up with mountains of rubbish lining the streets have called for the introduction of wheelie bins.

Your Local Guardian:

A toilet left next to a 'no dumping' sign

These images reveal just a glimpse of the piles of rubbish, including what appears to be a blood transfusion bag, left in the streets in recent weeks. There is also one photograph of a toilet, fly-tipped next to a no dumping sign.

People have become acclimatised to the sight of stinking and overflowing bins, which greet them outside the two Tube stations, often pillaged by foxes and strewn across the paths.

The bins regularly fill up quickly so people pile up rubbish next to them because they have nowhere else to put it.

Estate agent Tom Quaye, 32, has lived in Tooting since 2007 and has set up a petition calling on Wandsworth Council to install wheelie bins.

He said: “It’s just perpetual. The only way around it I think is wheelie bins. If you go to Greenwich they have different types of bins and there’s none of that.

“There’s lots of new developments in Tooting and more people.

Your Local Guardian:

Piles of bags around Tooting Broadway station 

“[The rubbish] is intolerable; I’ve noticed it increasing in the last 18 months. I have tried complaining to the council – they have got a ‘computer says no’ policy.

"Their rubbish policy doesn’t work. It is disgusting. Imagine walking a little boy or girl to school, dodging rubbish on the floor – it is not nice.

“If you said to people you are going to have to pay another £5-a-month in council tax for wheelie bins I can’t imagine many people would say no.”

Sadiq Khan, the MP for Tooting, said the council could not continue to ignore the issue.

He said: “The state of our streets is getting worse by the day. I continue to receive countless emails from Wandsworth residents regarding the mess created by foxes when bin bags are left out overnight, as well as concerns about abandoned furniture, from sofas, to carpets and even bathtubs.

“This is a big issue for local residents, but it’s clear that it isn’t a priority for Wandsworth Council, after they cut their street cleaning budget by almost 20 per cent last year.”

Your Local Guardian:

Takeaway bags from the previous night  

Leader of the Labour opposition Rex Osborn said the council needed to rethink its approach to waste collection and street cleaning in Tooting.

He said: “Fly-tipping and dirty streets are the two complaints that we hear most from residents living in Tooting.

Your Local Guardian:

Wandsworth Council says it cleans its town centres six times a day

"Putting up ‘no fly-tipping’ posters is simply not working and the council continues to take a very reactive approach to street cleaning problems, waiting for complaints to come in before any action is taken.

“We now have bin bags left on the street, which are then torn apart by foxes – with thorough street cleans often not following for hours or days after.”

Your Local Guardian:

Tooting High Street on a Saturday morning

A Wandsworth Council spokesman said wheelie bins were expensive and unsightly, adding: “Keeping the borough’s streets clean and tidy is a key priority.

"We clean busy town centres like Tooting six times a day while all residential roads are swept at least three times a week.

"We take robust action against people and businesses who drop litter or dump their rubbish with just under 800 prosecutions mounted in the past 12 months.

Your Local Guardian:

Outside Tooting Broadway tube station there is often stacks of rubbish like this

“At the moment, litter complaints are coming into us at the rate of just one a day, which for a borough the size of Wandsworth shows that our efforts are proving successful.

"And recent surveys have shown that 96 per cent of local streets are successfully meeting tough national standards for cleanliness.”

To support the petition for wheelie bins in Tooting visit epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/70533

What do you think about the streets of Tooting? Email ssleigh@london.newsquest.co.uk