Councillor sympathises with fed-up residents over rubbish-strewn streets
Ted Peskett, local democracy reporter
A councillor said he sympathises with residents who are fed up with waste issues plaguing parts of Cardiff.
Cardiff Council ward member for Plasnewydd, Cllr Peter Wong, made the comment after a picture emerged showing an overflowing commercial waste bin on Penlline Street, a small street off City Road, and litter strewn on the pavement.
Commercial waste management company, Smiths, whose bin was pictured said it has now collected the waste and tidied the area.
Cardiff Council said it is not responsible for collecting the waste pictured on the social media post, but added that an enforcement officer will visit City Road to see if any action needs to be taken.
Regular issue
Residents say litter and incorrectly disposed waste is a regular issue on City Road and other areas nearby like Albany Road and parts of Cathays.
Cllr Wong said: “I completely sympathise with residents who are fed up with both people and businesses not putting out their waste properly.
“We report these issues to the council waste teams when they are raised, and the waste teams are generally very good at reacting to these incidents, but businesses need to take responsibility for their creating situations like this.
“You can see from the picture that this particular business has overfilled their commercial bins, and this just isn’t acceptable.”
From April, it became law for all businesses in Wales to sort their waste for recycling.
Frustrations
On the Facebook post showing the bin on Penlline Street, many residents laid out their frustrations about recycling not being done properly, resulting in bin bags being torn open by seagulls.
However, one person who commented said fortnightly bin collections are a big challenge for businesses and some have rotas for checking contamination in bins and keeping them clean.
Cllr Wong added: “New Welsh Government regulations mean that restaurant and cafes are now required to separate and recycle their food waste, and this should help in the long term, but we need to see businesses get into the habit of doing this.
“We welcome restaurants and cafes to Roath but they need to play their part in keeping the Roath community tidy.”
We approached Smiths about the picture on social media showing one of its bins overflowing.
A spokesperson said: “We were made aware of the bin yesterday and have acted quickly to rectify the situation. The bin has already been collected and the area tidied up as best we can.”
They added: “We act as the contractor for a third party broker at this site and the reason for this situation was that the customer has been put on stop for non-payment and therefore we were instructed not to empty the bin.
“Environmental Health were satisfied with this reasoning. Service levels in this area are very high, with this situation very much an anomaly.
“We have worked tirelessly with all our customers (particularly in Wales due to the new regulations), to ensure waste is collected promptly and recycling waste is disposed of correctly.”
A Cardiff Council spokesperson said: “The council competes against the private sector for commercial waste contracts, but as the picture in this story clearly shows, this commercial waste bin doesn’t belong to the council and we are not contracted to collect this waste.
“However, if commercial waste services are causing an issue, with waste being spilled on the highway, we do have powers to enforce. An enforcement officer will visit City Road to see if any action needs to be taken.”
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Central Cardiff is so dirty with litter, it’s embarrassing.
Doesn’t look a bit like the ‘artist’s impression from the other day, but it does have the feel of Desolation Bay…
Councils can do things about this, so sympathy is fake. My Nan died asnd they tried fining us in RCT for the bin out too long. Has standards slipped this bad to allow this
The business in this article has a contract with a private waste disposal firm who refused to empty the bin because the business wasn’t paying them. Where is the council responsibility in this situation?
Filthy slobs. Some people never see their own waste and rubbish as their problem. You see it outside people’s houses, mounds of old rubbish which they walk past every day.Badly brought up scruffy scum bags.
At first glance I thought it was war torn Ukraine.
Capital City. What a disgrace.
The council and that lame duck the Senedd should be proud of what they haven’t done, served its people with pride
This is nothing to do with the council or the Welsh Government. The commercial waste collection firm had refused to empty the bin because the business hadn’t paid them.
In that case you cannot blame the Waste collectors.
If you don’t pay the piper etc!!!!!!!
Council/Senedd for Allowing this to happen. They are in charge ultimately for the state of the towns & cities of Wales.
The councils obsession with spending millions on pointless bike lanes and the polluted environment,while ignoring the many litter strewn streets of Cardiff is lamentable. Civic pride has slid into oblivion. Look at the City Hall area, City Hall closed, the ex fountain has been derelict , surrounded by a metal fence,, the City Hall clock hasn’t worked for such a long time. Having £2.5 million worth of 20 mph signs is definitely the wrong priority.
The council giving to many licenses for take away and food shop and waste money on bike lane bus lane and the 20 mph waste our taxes also funny letting a vape shop open no more than 20 yds from Cathays high school
Cathays is know
Wonderful immigration and weak Council litter inspectors
This picture is an illustration of the private sector. Those who dream of a world run by the private sector should remember that.
The Council has enforcement powers; why doesn’t it use them – vigorously? Instead it adopts a ‘not our problem’ attitude and spends £millions on a water feature in Churchill Way, where you can barely see the water and what you can see is full of rats!
Cardiff council and councillors you don’t really care about the mess and the s@@thole cardiff has become you spend thousands opening up Churchill way it’s another mess have you taken a walk around the city lately yesterday the council or councillors didn’t like the graffiti art work at the bottom of Roath park lake you soon painted overit.if it was a bankys you would have the world’s media to show it off. basically double standards.