Archived on 6/5/2022

Noisy/Early Refuse collection

DevonishForester
8 Jun '18

This is off topic but I think this needs to be pursued as I believe the lawful start-time for noisy work is 08.00 - The Local Authority is the offender but also the enforcement authority.

Are we being consulted?

Sherwood
9 Jun '18

When I worked in the Refuse Depot we were not supposed to start before 7.00 a.m., but we always did because traffic was lighter.

Hollow
9 Jun '18

I’m sorry but the bin men need to be able to pick up the bins. They usually do the areas with the worst traffic at the earliest hours which is completely reasonable and common sense.

DevonishForester
10 Jun '18

Are you? Your post seems unsympathetic, and is a strong unapologetic assertion of the Council’s prerogative to do whatever it wants regardless

Yes, the bins need to be collected - everybody agrees. But the Council is not doing us a favour - (1) they have statutory obligation to collect and (2) we pay for the service.

Here we don’t agree. If it is also more convenient for skip lorries and building materials suppliers to collect and deliver at 06.00 when traffic is light, should we ignore the law for them too? No, and I suspect the reason bins are emptied so early is less to do with reason and more probably “because we’ve always done it this way”. Lewisham is a deeply conservative Borough.

I believe the Council’s foremost obligation ought to be to it’s residents quiet enjoyment of life. In the case of this resident, the council’s operatives are ignoring her well-being.

I can only speculate why you might think that is OK. Do you think someone still in bed at 5.45 is a work-shy malingerer?

I am reminded of a post you made on July 2017, when there was a discussion of traffic noise/disturbance:
look at the properties on Devonshire Rd itself. It’s not exactly a small leafy suburban street that you’d have a reasonable expectation to have less traffic on. Its a very high density street with purpose built estates / flats as well as massive mansion blocks mostly converted to flats.
Again, there’s a punitive tone, and your reference to “leafy” is interesting.
Devonshire Road does have trees -


more than many other roads in Forest Hill. So it is apparent that you cannot be referring to actual trees or leaves. “Leafy” must mean something else, perhaps it’s a class indicator. Estate agent jargon can help us here. When they say that a house for sale is in a “leafy” street, they mean that the street is populated by prosperous owner-occupiers. So it appears you are saying that prosperous people don’t live in this “high density street with purpose built estates” and that no-one should, therefore, have any “reasonable expectation to have less traffic”. It seems that prosperous leafy people might be entitled to have a reduction of traffic disturbance, but on the other hand, the undeserving poor who live in high density estates should not expect to benefit in any way from a traffic management plan.

And the benefits scrounger who doesn’t want to be woken up by the bin lorry ought to be up at 05.00 saluting the Union Jack and be first in the queue at the Job Centre, and be grateful for whatever minimum wage zero hours contract is available.

armadillo
10 Jun '18

I’ve moved the above posts over from the Aircraft Noise thread as they were off-topic from the original conversation and gaining enough momentum to warrant its own thread.

Polite reminder - please endeavour to things civil towards each other within the forum.