Why Can't We Clean Up Shepherd's Bush Green?

Shepherd's Bush Green on a Summer Morning

Back in 2014 we first started started posting about the sorry state of Shepherd's Bush Green, and the failure of our Council to do anything about enforcing the law.  Six years on, things are worse than ever.

Walk across Shepherd's Bush Green in the morning and you will see piles of fast food, empty bottles and cans, often dumped right next to the bins.

The worst thing is that there doesn't seem to be any attempt by our Council to enforce the laws against dropping litter. Why not?

Litter on Shepherd's Bush Green

Why can't LBHF enforce the law?

Our local Council are very efficient handing out parking tickets to motorists; cars are an easy target, and a useful source of revenue. But has anyone seen anyone actually get a ticket (Fixed Penalty Notice, or "FPN") for dropping litter in the Bush?

The usual suspects
It's not as if it would be hard to identify who is doing it - the same people are out on Shepherd's Bush Green every night, sitting on the same benches and dropping their beer cans and fast food containers. The system of law enforcement is not working. Shepherd's Bush Green is filthy, every day.

Litter on the picnic tables

Serco Daily Cleanup
In fairness to the Council, they do a good job of clearing it up. The guys from Serco who have to clean up the mess do so patiently every day. But surely there should be a way of making it unattractive for people to create the mess in the first place.

Shepherd's Bush Next Door
This is a subject that many local people feel strongly about, perhaps because living in a rubbish dump creates a sense of shame in many of us about our community. A recent post at Next Door by Annie Oliver prompted over 60 comments, most of them full of outrage about the nightly deposit of trash.

What is the solution?
Some believe the solution lies in bigger fines, or better law enforcement. Others suggest that local fast food outlets, such as McDonalds and KFC, should be obliged to do more to persuade their customers to clean up their mess.  Others suggest more bins, or bigger bins, but then still others oppose bins on security grounds.

Bigger fines - and enforce the law
Our solution? Make the fines meaningful - at least £200. Then, hire some enforcement agents, ring-fence the money collected, and enforce the law. If our Council saw litter as a source of revenue (as they do with parking fines) then littering would surely end.

To see more blog posts on the subject, see below:

• Why the threat of a £80 fine doesn't work - 2014
• Littering in 2016 on Shepherd's Bush Green
• Littering in 2018 on Shepherd's Bush Green
• Broken Glass in Children's Playground, May 2019
• Moped Delivery Problems in Caxton Village, April 2019

The Bush Telegraph offers a personal view on life in Shepherd's Bush. If you would like to contribute a story, email us at shepherdsbushblog@gmail.com. And don't forget to add your opinion in the comments section below.