Shepherd's Bush Green Is a Mess

Shepherd's Bush Green yesterday morning

Anyone who walks across Shepherd's Bush Green in the mornings will be familiar with the sea of litter that is deposited there every night.

Food, empty bottles, soda cans, McDonalds wrappers - all sorts of junk gets left there - often right next to the bins. It's a depressing sight, and there doesn't seem to be any attempt to enforce the laws against dropping litter.

Zero Tolerance? Not likely

Which is odd, because throughout Shepherd's Bush you will see plenty of signs threatening "zero tolerance" for litter bugs - and an £80 fine for dropping litter. In theory, this should mean clean streets, but in practice it doesn't seem to.

In fact, the lamp posts with the "zero tolerance" signs seem to be a favourite gathering place for litter, a special gift for the law enforcers who obviously aren't there.

I personally have never seen anyone actually get a ticket (Fixed Penalty Notice, or "FPN") in the Bush. Parking offences? Sure - the Council's agents are everywhere, issuing tickets, prowling for violations - real and imagined.

And it's not like the litterbugs are hiding. They are there on Shepherd's Bush Green every night, sitting in the same places and dropping their litter in the same place. It wouldn't take Sherlock Holmes to hunt them down.

Shepherd's Bush Green

The system of law enforcement is not working. Shepherd's Bush Green is filthy, every single day. Litterbugs do not live in fear of £80 fines, if indeed they are ever levied.

And according to Councillor Harry Phibbs' blog post from 2015, our Council have basically given up on enforcement.

What is to be done?

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