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?

Grubby. Liverpool probably gets more council funding.

Depends when you live in the London area, it's OK around my way. I'm sure Liverpool has some dirty bits, every city has.

My part of greater London has a good council for any type of refuse, we have weekly bin collections for garden waste, rubbish and recycling. They clear any reported fly tipping within 3 days and you can book large collections for free ie beds, sofas etc......

My town is clean but only because local people meet weekly to clear up after the tourists and less community minded residents who drop litter. I call people out who drop litter and I often get a tirade of abuse back. Use the bins folks!!! The verges of the motorway however are disgusting, why throw things out of your window?

I’m just over the South London border into Surrey by 1 mile and the fly tipping is terrible.

Rubbish is certainly noticeable along my nearest motorway.
But my town council seems to be broadly on top of local stuff.
Monday morning in our local park is always clean up day for our refuse collectors. It is extraordinary how lazy some people must be even when there are bins to hand.

It definitely does. Like you say, all cities do, and Liverpool certainly has the less desirable / dirty parts too.

I don’t think so. Look at Birmingham if you want to see a really dirty city.

Same where I live, too - small, historic town in the South Downs. There are loads of litter bins in the town centre and people use them.

Occasionally groups of teens will congregate on one of the green spaces and leave bottles, cans etc, but either the council or local litter pickers clear it pretty quickly.

Bizarre. That tricky rubbish.

I'm miles from London, and it's the same here. Really gone downhill over the past decade. More recently it's slightly better as the council are making huge effort to clean up, but the amount of rubbish strewn around in the first place is just as terrible.

Interested to see it's country-wide.

Long term Labour council (and ward) if that matters!

I've lived in the North East for most of my life. I do think A road verges are definitely more choked with rubbish than they used to be. Town centres aren't so bad. I do encourage people to report litter to the local authority. They have a statutory duty to clean it up and usually have a form to report it on their website.

Wow, all of it?! That's not very good is it. I think it very much depends on the borough. It's a pretty big place to make such a sweeping generalisation about as a visitor.

Of course busy touristy areas are quite messy with litter etc. And some outer boroughs experience illegal flytipping. But there's plenty of places which seem perfectly normal and are not especially grubby.

Bristol too

Southend by any chance?

Indeed - we get a fair bit of rubbish here in Bath but I see the council out every morning and evening with the sweepers and sprayers, the main issue it seems are people and a lot of tourists , we have issues with seagulls too and London with pigeons, I think unfortunately this contributes

Yes it really angers me when people drive theough our beautiful little village and chuck rubbish out of their window 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

I'm a northerner from Yorkshire so gentically pre disposed to hate London but just can't do it. Our last visit was a football match at QPR and had a good few hours to kill before said match. We decided to walk from Victoria to the ground and it was a lovely walk. Included through the park, stop off at Nottinghill and the market around there. Walked on through to Shepherd's Bush. No idea if I only saw manicured London, but felt completely safe, it was clean, quiet and quite relaxing walk. Stopped for a coffee in random café and people were friendly and had time for a chat. Been to a number of different things over the last few years and this has been the general experience. Can't relate to the London hate at all. It's a great city.

When I was in zone 2 in a flat we had fly tippers come at least once a month leaving our buildings dumpsters absolutely full of building waste. Leaving us with no bins for the next two weeks… 12 flats with no bins.

You don’t have to hate London to think that there’s a rubbish problem. I’m a Yorkshire woman who bloody lives here and I see the litter. It wouldn’t fly in a Yorkshire village I’ll tell you that for free.

My mum lives in a well-off area in London and it looks decidedly shabby. The main high street is a disgrace; closed shops, tacky shop fronts, cracked pavements, weeds, rubbish left outside of premises, mattresses... I'd be embarrassed to take anyone there if I lived there.

I e-mailed the council about it a few years ago and they replied saying it wasn't their place to dictate to shop owners. I disagree with that though, as there should be a standard, not just an anything goes attitude.

Sad to say, most of London really lets itself down. Don't get me started on the tube.

See THIS I disagree with, the tube is a magical feat of engineering and I love it.

You were called a racist? Where?

What do you expect? The Left have done all they can to make us ashamed of our history and culture. They have smashed our statues, ‘de-colonised’ our universities, and taught us to despise our national heroes. Why would people take pride in a country where it is controversial to fly your national flag?! I wouldn’t dare hang a St George or a Union Jack outside my house. I’d probably get a brick through my window.

To be honest, I barely feel English or British anymore. I no longer live on an island with a shared history and culture. As for the new identity that is being imposed on me, it means nothing to me. I just care about my own family now. I’ll pay my tax and obey the law, but that’s it.

I was going to say Brighton - but it actually looked quite a bit improved last time I went