Scovell Estate repairs near completion after weeks without heating in Borough
Southwark Council expects the last 42 homes to be reconnected by the end of 14 October and will set out compensation once the work is complete.
Wandsworth plans £30 bulky waste charge to pay for daily street sweeping
Charging for bulky waste would raise £800,000 a year for daily sweeping, extra jet washers and more enforcement staff. The Cabinet decides on 12 October.
Key facts
- Each bulky waste collection would cost £30, with a cap of 100 slots a day
- The eight proposals need £767,000 a year to run and £110,000 to set up
- Officers estimate that ending free collections would recover £800,000 a year
- Wandsworth's Cabinet makes the final decision on 12 October
Wandsworth Council plans to start charging £30 again for bulky waste collections and spend the income on cleaner streets. The final decision rests with its Cabinet on 12 October.
An officers’ report lists eight proposals from the Conservative-led council. Together they would need £767,000 in running costs every year, and £110,000 would have to be spent once to get them started. Officers estimate that scrapping the free pickups would recover £800,000 annually.
What the Wandsworth street cleaning plans include
Some of the borough’s busiest streets would move from a twice-weekly sweep to a daily one. Two extra jet washing vehicles would be added to a five-day washing programme run each year. The council would also recruit a monitoring officer, an enforcement officer, a waste enforcement manager and a second assistant director for waste services.
Fox-proof caddies are on the list, along with AI scanners designed to reduce contamination in recycling. Where dumped rubbish has been cleared, stencils would mark the spot to deter anyone from tipping there again. The council also intends to draw up a fly-tipping strategy lasting several years.
Free bulky waste collections would end
The previous Labour administration made collections free in January 2025, offering each household two a year, and raised daily slots from 35 to 200. The new plan would put a £30 price on every collection and cap slots at 100 a day.
Natasha Epstein, the council’s Director of Waste, told the Environment Committee on Wednesday 23 September that the aim was to “clean up the high streets further”. Labour councillor Paul White argued that the free service did not need to go to fund the work, and asked whether the council would “gamble away this popular policy and risk more fly-tipping”.
The Conservative councillor who holds the environment brief in the Cabinet, Ethan Brooks, accepted that fewer fly-tips had been logged since free collections began. He said the council was still picking up between 35 and 65 more tonnes of dumped waste a month in 2025. The council needed to make savings, he said, and it had a responsibility to look hard at any taxpayer-funded service whose figures showed fly-tipping had not come down.
Key questions
How much would a bulky waste collection cost in Wandsworth?
£30 per collection, with daily slots capped at 100.
When will Wandsworth decide on the plans?
The council's Cabinet is due to take the final decision on 12 October.
What would the money pay for?
Daily sweeping of some of the busiest streets, two more jet washing vehicles, extra enforcement and monitoring staff, fox-proof caddies, AI recycling scanners and a fly-tipping strategy.
How many free bulky waste collections do households get now?
Since January 2025 each household has been offered two free collections a year.
Gipsy Hill tenant and her nephew in hospital after council house ceiling gives way again
Venesha Rose says repairs to her Lambeth Council home failed to fix the cause, and she has been raising leaks with the council since 2024.
Ombudsman again criticises HMP Wandsworth over emergency codes after 2021 death
No control room record shows when a code blue was called after Aktar Uddin was found unresponsive in his cell on Christmas Day 2021.
Hammersmith and Fulham weighs council tax rises of up to 150% to fill £160m gap
Under the largest option, a Band D bill would reach £2,522.50 a year before the GLA precept. The council leader says protecting services comes first.