Chiswick Rubbish Festers in the Sun

Most Chiswick residents remained blissfully unaware of the ongoing strike which led to the cancellation of refuse collections in the area on Wednesday.

Streets continue to be lined with bin bags already showing signs of attention from the local rodent population. The Council is not rescheduling the collection so Chiswick rubbish will go uncollected for two weeks. Their suggestion is to take refuse to the Space Waye recycling facility in Feltham.

Unison and Unite unions called the two-day strike on 16 and 17 July in response to the national pay offer of 2.45%. Hounslow Council's waste collection and street cleansing teams are participating.

Those affected, in the Chiswick and Feltham areas, will not have their rubbish collected until the following week (Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 July).

Residents have reacted angrily to perceived Council incompetence in failing to make any attempt to notify people of the impending problem. There was no indication that the strike would affect services on the Council web site Tuesday morning until complaints were made on the ChiswickW4.com forum. No notification was received by this web site and the Hounslow Chronicle, the Council's preferred newspaper for official communications is not published until Thursday.

The Council is telling residents that any rubbish should be stored on their own properties and should not be left on the roadside, eg, pavement or grass verges.

The recycling and garden waste collection services were not affected and ran as normal.

July 16, 2008