Why is Shepherd's Bush Green Such a Mess?

Spring has come at last, good news us all, but bad news for poor Shepherd's Bush Green, which once again has become a public rubbish dump.

Local resident Sonia Carnelli has written to our local council, and councillors, to express her own response to the problem.

Sonia isn't just complaining; she also offers a number of possible solutions that might make things better.

After all, it surely cannot be impossible to clean up Shepherd's Bush Green.  Giving up on our public green spaces - which can at times feel like no-go zones - cannot be the right choice for our neighbourhood.

"I would like to share the following pictures, which I took of Shepherds Bush Green on April 13th at 7am. 

I won’t waste energy in telling you how disgusted and saddened I was at what I saw; I’d prefer to focus on what can be done to improve the situation.

My recommendations from last year still remain:

• Add more bins. The ones currently available are not sufficient.
• Introduce a Green levy on the various fast food retailers such as, McDonalds, Amigo Burger, Surgista and Kentucky Fried Chicken stores adjacent to the Green. They are simply polluting our area and apparently taking no responsibility for the mess caused. Furthermore, can’t we stop plastic straws, plastic cups etc. being so readily sold to customers in this day and age?
• Requesting Amigos, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonalds etc. to provide large branded bins so their waste can be collected by these companies and recycled/managed as part of their business model.
• Educate our residents by adding some much needed posters and notices on the green requesting that everybody clean up after themselves, picking up and disposing of their waste, or risk a fine
• Introduce wardens to monitor and fine. We had Covid wardens…Can we apply the same approach to protect our environment not only our health (the two are correlated btw)? These roles could be self-funding!

I think I am not the only one who is concerned about not only the appalling mistreatment of the Green but the lack of commitment from our Council to meet much needed greener targets.

Thank you
Sonia Carnelli"

The Shepherd's Bush Blog offers a personal view on life in Shepherd's Bush. If you would like to contribute a story about our neighbourhood, email us at shepherdsbushblog(at)gmail.com