‘Uncollected bins? That’s rubbish’ says Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman
Hundreds of dustbins aren’t being collected every week in the East End, according to a list of complaints to the Town Hall.
Around 1,200 bins are left full each month, according to calls from households logged by Tower Hamlets Council—there was an average of 220 a month in Bow alone.
Now Opposition councillors have accused the Mayor of failing to carry out a “basic function” of local government.
“The mayor is failing to get to grips with the council’s most basic services,” said Labour’s Environment spokesman Helal Abbas.
“Almost 4,000 missed collections in three months is a huge embarrassment.
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“When a mayor can’t get that right, people will really start to question if he’s up to the job.”
There is little love lost between Abbas and Mayor Lutfur Rahman. The two were rivals to be Labour’s candidate for mayor in 2010 when Abbas lost the race—before Rahman was deselected and quit the party to win the mayor’s office as an independent.
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But the two sides traded blows and rubbished each other this week over the garbage issue.
The Mayor’s Office admitted that unemptied bins was not acceptable, but insisted that almost 100 per cent were collected.
An aide said: “Any missed collections are unacceptable, but it’s hard to see this as anything more than Labour’s usual tired tactics of exaggeration.
“This issue was raised some months ago and we investigated and found 99.8 per cent of all collections were completed between April and September.”
Town Hall figures show 2.27 million collections over the six weeks.
But the Mayor has also been slammed by Labour for cutting street cleansing and bringing in charges for bulk rubbish collection which they fear would lead to illegal dumping.