‘Camden is one of the handful of London boroughs with a serious fly-tipping problem’

• I WAS appalled to see that Camden was one of the handful of London boroughs with a serious fly-tipping problem, as featured on ITV News, (Messiest streets in the UK? Reports of fly-tipping double in Camden, November 21).

But it is not at all surprising since Veolia, the council’s rubbish collector routinely contributes to the problem by leaving rubbish bins out on the street in every part of the borough. This naturally encourages passers-by to dump the odd crisp packet, coffee cup and more, even the occasional mattress!

Here in Swiss Cottage, there was a set of three large bins at the junction by College Crescent which routinely became over-full, resulting in lots of fly-tipping, but rather than increase the frequency of emptying these bins, Camden’s (or Veolia’s) solution was simply to remove them.

So the fly-tipping continues, perhaps more so since there is nowhere for conscientious people to put their odd bits of rubbish as they pass through the area.

I don’t have a solution to fly-tipping, there are already penalties for the offence, but perhaps Camden could increase their efforts to identify the fly-tippers as a start. Or perhaps they should just accept that it happens and make sure Veolia cleans up more frequently.

But to discourage the random dumping of items on our streets Camden must reinstate the old rubbish collection regime where bins were emptied and returned to the bin stores at the side of almost all properties in the borough.

For decades this worked well, and is far better than the new system which requires residents to do half the job, placing their bins within five feet of the pavement, while Veolia staff only do half of theirs, routinely failing to return the bins into the gardens.

Of course, there are a few houses and blocks where bin stores are not close to the road, so they need to adopt a different system for them, in cooperation with the owners and residents.

We all have a responsibility to place our rubbish in the proper places, but Veolia/Camden must do their job and not make us do half the work.

DAVID REED, NW3