Rubbish collectors spending up to 10 hours a day clearing Danson Park in Bexley after lifting of virus restrictions

By Lachlan Leeming, Local Democracy Reporter

Waste crews are spending up to 10 hours a day emptying bins and picking up litter thrown on the ground in Danson Park, Bexley council’s cabinet member for places has revealed, saying that some revellers had “lost control of their minds” in the wake of social distancing measures being relaxed.

Council members were updated on the state of parks in the borough, including the titanic efforts required to keep them clean, as thousands of residents continue to flock there to socialise.

Cabinet member for places, Cllr Peter Craske, told the full council meeting this week there were currently 441 litter bins across Bexley’s 106 parks and open spaces, with up to five million litres of litter able to be held at any one time.

He also revealed waste crews had been put under immense pressure since social distancing measures were relaxed after the coronavirus lockdown – with messy and careless revellers causing the cabinet member to state “a small minority seem to have lost control of their minds”.

Because of this, the authority had doubled its waste collection for Danson Park in recent months, Cllr Craske said, with double the crews working between 8-10 hours daily to empty all 62 bins in the park, as well as picking up litter dumped there.

He also pumped up the launch of the authority’s parks volunteer service, which he said had seen 130 people signed up to the scheme to help keep the borough’s green spaces clean within a few days.

Last month the council appealed to park users to dispose of their rubbish responsibly.

Rubbish at Danson Park over the weekends usually fills two 1.5 tonne trucks on both days.

On the spot fixed penalty notices of £150 will be issued to anyone caught littering or not clearing up after their dogs.

Pictured top: Rubbish at Danson Park