London and surrounding area has become so unkempt

[GrubbyTowns]

Rubbish strewn everywhere. All the verges full of cans, takeout detritus.
London and the southeast generally just seems so unkempt to where it was a few years ago even.
Just came back from a trip to Liverpool and the contrast was incredible. A busy city but so clean!
Why is this?

I walk through Trafalgar Square most days and it's always amazingly clean, no matter what event has been on the night before

the small market town in SE I live in is bloody awful for fly tipping and rubbish everywhere. Volunteer litter picking is fighting a losing battle. It’s become like this in the last decade. The town itself has also grown in housing but unfortunately less and less infrastructure.

we are zone 3 london, we have regular fly tipping hot spots, landlords dump mattresses, cleared and more appear , they use it as a free service and cant take to the tip or pay the £30 to the council. Other fly tips are constant black bags which could be put in a bin.

Boring.

It’s lovely where I live.

I find London to be clean. My local outer London borough doesn't seem to have any rubbish around. I see street sweepers regularly in the High Streets. The inner London borough where I used to live had a very small amount of rubbish. I don't see rubbish when I go to central London.
I do see a lot of rubbish when I visit a seaside town in the south east - I won't name it.

I am absolutely not a reform voter but this week I have complained to my local council about the state of the roads after bin collection day.

I live in a posh London suburb. For a few months now the roads are strewn with rubbish for days after bin day. It’s like the bin collectors spray it all around after collecting it. Yesterday while walking to the tube along a residential street I saw used nappies, bits of food, household rubbish everywhere. I can’t understand what’s changed in less than a year.

There is nothing stopping you scrolling on by and taking your good and bad knee to a more interesting thread.

What, why?

I’m struggling with this being about Reform. Liverpool (who I mentioned as a good example of a clean area) are under Labour and have been for many years.

That’s a spectacular reach.

I agree. My DC have moved there this year and it seems so much tattier than when I lived there in the 1990s.

Oh I see this is why you’re getting grief op.

It’s a shame to see we have more litter here.

I’ve just got back from a week in Stratford.

not my experience. It was actually really clean and loads of people walking the streets keeping it that way.

Isn’t it?

Well speaking for my road it’s because the council used to use open top baskets for recycling. They’ve changed to bins now but those who had the baskets kept them… as soon as it’s windy all the plastic waste goes wooooooosh into the air and I wake up to a garden full of butter tubs and yoghurt cups.

It then all blows into the bird sanctuary next door if I don’t get it in time.

Then there’s the drunks and drug addicts who leave shit everywhere. And the teens who do the same.

I think in general people are much better about litter than when I was growing up. Remember the Keep Britain Tidy campaign? There was a reason that was needed

We live in Yorkshire. It is the same here.

Yes. I’ve been called a rascist for daring to discuss the rubbish strewing across much of London and the SE- who knew?

My MIL lives on a council estate on the very edge of Croydon, so not posh at all.

Her road and the surrounding ones always look really neat and tidy, with the verges all neatly trimmed. Mind you, they've started charging residents for cutting the verges, it's only £38 a year for MIL because she's on pension credit, I've no idea how much it is for people who have to pay the full amount.

Grubby or clean? I want to know what Liverpool are doing to get it so right.

Mine too. A lone piece of paper flew up the street on recycling day and someone picked it up immediately. The council respond to reports of fly tipping within hours.

That’s good to hear. It’s heartwarming to hear there are areas people are happy with. Almost everywhere I visit is awful.

I haven't been in London for years but the litter is definitely an issue here in Glasgow. Most noticeable at motorway sliproads where pond life people lob their fast food wrappers and cans out of the car.

Hmm - I think there is quite a lot of variation. I love my part of North London but yes, it has become a bit unkept and dirty looking. I find it a bit embarrassing and sad.