Flytipped items being set on fire

The latest in the debacle of “literal grown ups can’t dispose of rubbish properly”:

Someone left a bed frame out by the Railway Telegraph last night, and then what looks like a lighter was deliberately run across the bed frame to set it alight.

A shout out to the lady who alerted me (but somehow not the fire brigade?) and the cars who pulled over to help get it extinguished last night. In hindsight, 999 would have been a better option but know that we all behave a bit weirdly in emergencies. I did eventually run down to the fire station after we’d got it put out with a few buckets of water to come and soak it down, and I’ve had to email the council about this.

To all who keep dumping their crap on the street: take it to the tip or be responsible and arrange collection instead of leaving literal fire hazards for the rest of us to clean up; leaving your unwanted furniture outside and not disposing of it correctly has dire consequences. If nobody had acted then loss of life could have occurred.

To whoever set it on fire: get in the sea.

Rant over, but beyond that, I am absolutely speechless.

We’re having such a problem with people dumping furniture outside our building on Stanstead Road. We’ve got sofas, fridges,mattresses and so many old toys and clothes currently under the main entrance. It’s such a hazard and this incident makes it even more worrying as it’s our only exit.

Fix my street seems to only take the mattresses at the moment and even then that seems to prompt more fly tipping. Bar sending an inventory of all the crap under the stairs to the council everyday am not sure what else we can do to get rid of it

Sounds horrendous @willmorgan - hard to understand why anyone would set it on fire if they are dumping it, I guess someone else did, why - who knows.

@anon4996655 that doesn’t great at all - I don’t know what to tell you bar fixmystreet, but maybe try one of your local councillors who may be able to push things?

The apparent higher incidence of dumping and fly tipping may be connected to the closure of the council tip- sorry - “re-use and recycling centre” - as I should call it. Landsman Way was closed for quite a while. It seems from the website that it is now open; not sure if it is true or not.

Landsman Road is open - but you have to book a slot in advance via the Lewisham Council website.
https://lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/wasterecycle/reuse-and-recycling-centre-covid
You put in a request then someone gets back to you to agree a date/time.

Several restrictions are in effect - cars only (no vans, commercial vehicles etc) and - strangely - only one type of waste per visit.

Used it the other week to drop off several boxes of green waste. They have strict social distancing rules in effect, and seem to be pretty well organised

The guys at Landsman Road were very picky as to who they let in and what they would and would not accept before the pandemic. Now it seems as if there is an appointment system and you can only take one type of waste in each trip - what’s that about then (?). If anyone is wondering why there is a lot of fly tipping at the moment then here is your answer. It does not make it right - it really doesn’t - but if disposing of junk was not made so hard (and by no means was it easy even before recent events) then the problems of random dumping would not be as great.