New low reached as another “Royal” Borough of Greenwich publicity drive launched
Behold! Greenwich Council have a new slogan as their new communication and PR strategy takes hold.
Finally, improvement is here apparently. They’re “Getting Things Done” and don’t you forget it. Well, that’s if you can ignore the neglected areas across parts of the “Royal” borough as you walk to the shops or station which resemble slums more than ever.
Yes, Greenwich council have launched a new publicity drive today (at great expense) with a new slogan and videos of the council leader plastered across social media. The council leader even said “shit”. It must be serious.
These communications strategies don’t pay for themselves though, and with an election coming in less than a year and Labour on their arse in the polls it’s time for a few grand of public money to be spent on a publicity drive.
Not Getting Things Done
The trouble is anyone with functioning eyes can see the reality. This weekend to give one stark and recurring example Abbey Wood estate looked as bad as it ever has with dumped rubbish in numerous – and the same – place. No scrub that, it was looking worse than ever before. Just abysmally bad.
Worst thing is the numerous piles of rubbish seen today was dumped in the exact same places it’s been dumped almost daily for 20 years and long before austerity and before cuts. Due to two decades of inaction any unscrupulous wanker who now wants to dump stuff heads straight over to the area. Greenwich never bother checking. They never act. Just nothing.
Before now we’ve seen previous spending announcements on various clean-up drives which never transpired. Places like Abbey Wood or others deemed not “Royal Greenwich” enough are left behind.
Funnily enough all the press releases before today on funding or task forces didn’t transfer into brothering to set up discrete camera to see who is dumping the rubbish in the very same spots every day. And so it’s happening in the same spots daily for 20 years now. Every single day.
How inept – or lacking in any sort of care – does it take to never bother checking and doing a single pro-active measure in that time? And so thousands are spent annually picking up the crap we have to walk through every day. It’s an embarrassing place to bring friends of family.
For Labour Greenwich Council’s leaders? Who cares. Don’t live there.
Never any effort put into finding who does actually is responsible or any kind of enforcement. Fact is Greenwich under Labour don’t give damn about estates like Abbey Wood. They’ve been told plenty of times. Possibly hundreds of times. They never act. Not “Royal” enough.
And so of course ignoring the problem has now led to six separate individual spots within 400 metres with dumped rubbish now evident almost every day. And today was a new low.
These general spots often see three of four of those with rubbish each time you pass. Today all six were piling over. It’s beyond bad. Strangers were remarking about the state of the place. Nothing sums up how little Labour in Greenwich care about certain places as the walk this morning I took. The culmination of twenty years of not giving a damn.
If Greenwich were competent enough you might thing they’d let it get so bad they could’ve timed it with an expensive publicity drive with a van turning up, a smiling politician and a camera to put resulting videos on Tik Tok and Instagram.
But that’s giving them way too much credit.
Funds
So how will they do it? How will they pay for the latest clean-up drive after years of undertaking zero pro-active measures in the very same spots day after day?
Well, Greenwich’s latest publicity and media announcements claim funding for measures such as fly tipping enforcement will come from developer income.
This being Greenwich though they’re very secretive about how much and where from. How much from Section 106? Community Infrastructure Levy? Who knows. You won’t find clear answers from the authority.
I was going to cover this when the council’s cabinet discussed it recently but the associated report before them was so feeble it barely warranted a mention. It’s almost as if they don’t really care and it’s a publicity thing to gain a few votes.
For Labour having been complacent for so long the most important thing is to get a news story out. Sod the details or how anything will be different now compared to years of ignoring problems.
They’ve also announced a big number without mentioning it’s over a number of years. That old politician’s trick. See Labour’s recent announcement on new “affordable” housing.
Yet in the here and now walk around estates. See the “Royal” borough away from specific favoured areas. Go see the reality. Christ knows the leaders don’t seem to.
For those who do the reality of years of empty prior announcements is clear to see as we pass ever more neglected spots where rubbish piles high in the same area every day they authority have never bothered to investigate for 20 years.
Another announcement now? Excuse me if it doesn’t have the strong whiff of a PR event.
Same near me. Looks like a dump. Tell the council and they say they’ll pick it up. Doesn’t exactly stop the same people returning with a van the next day does it? Then the next day. Then there mate 50 yards along. Who street become a tip. Tell the MP. Not my job. Fobbed off. Tell council again. We will pick it up they say. Not stopping it though FFS. All a bunch of idiots who have no interest. Wouldn’t get this happening next to the cutty sark or a MPs house.
“Fact is Greenwich under Labour don’t give damn about estates like Abbey Wood” – they don’t care about it anywhere in the borough. It’s infuriating to walk past fly-tipping daily. In the same spot. It’s embarrassing when I have friends and family over from abroad to see what a neglected sh!thole I live in. But don’t worry, we’ll have the regular 5% increase in council tax next year and maybe I’ll have to pay for my street parking too. As a tax payer at the absolute minimum I want clean streets. Reform (party) is definitely not the answer but I give up with Labour next election.
Id noticed that ludicrous “getting things done” nonsense they keep pushing at the moment.
Tragic bullshit slogans that no one will be fooled by or buys into. Treating voters as simplistic fools with old shite. If nothing else that makes me less likely to vote for Labour.
Lol I saw a video of the council leader Mr Okereke putting some rubbish in a bin earlier as part of some nonsense announcement. It makes sense now. This is where thousands of taxpayers money from their new communications manager has gone isnt it? Homemade videos and a slogan. Jesus wept. In other news the borough looks ever worse as starkly highlighted in photos and out own eyes every day. Bring on the election. Green’s for me. Labour are rotten and ripe for losing – and that’s said my someone who supported them for 25 years until recently.
Great for u to recognise Greens, around my part of East Greenwich it’s only a ten min walk from the ‘Sark’ yet still we get fly tips in the same places regularly and all they do is clear them after a few days , clear so they can dump more, rather than catching the ‘scum bags ‘ with solutions as Murky mentions of discrete cameras. (excuse my language but it makes you mad enough to swear). There’s even solutions now of scanning camera footage within seconds over a period of days/nights. Get their number plates to trace them then put their photos on a database to find the idiots. If they cover their plates the facial recognition will catch them eventually. Spend the PR money on huge billboards and social media to name and shame the arseholes doing it. Not on consultants huge fees! Enough is enough here Labour. Greens in east Greenwich have been organising litter picks and clean ups and greening areas for tears now even though they’re not in power. Here in East Greenwich they were under 70 votes short at the last locals of winning and next year with luck they’ll get in. Time for change, and not to the multi millionaire Farage’s bunch of nerds.
Somewhat late in the day to suddenly decide the borough needs a clean up.
Also talking about getting things done often does not translate into action on the ground .
One video does not make for a cleaner borough.
Plus the council agreed cuts to street cleaning earlier this year .
So assume these cuts are now reversed.
Great article and the same happens where we live in another London Borough. What’s the solution to all of this: vote them out? Has anyone been able to mount powerful enough challenges to get the council get things done?
We have our own spot that has been routinely dumped on for probably the last 20 years too. I give you Mountbatten close and adjacent green off of Timbercroft lane Plumstead common. It really is depressing and the old adage of “not returning to the scene of a crime” is completely ignored by the serial fly tippers because they know enforcement is laughable. Must be the easiest crimes to solve if perpetrators return daily??
That’s the problem all over London. Enforcement
Coupland Place Plumstead and surrounding areas are in a state. Household rubbish, large items dumped. The tenants had a massive clear up of the estate, at least 5 tons of waste collected put all in one area for collection and RBG council moaning about the amount of stuff they had to put on the waste truck. It’s a battle, no one interested, many meeting’s with various persons who tell you what they want you to hear and do the bear minimum. We all are paying a service charge but not getting the service we pay for, this has been going on for years and reported multiple times, mentally draining
Ere I’m council tenant meself iss dahn to the tenants n cllrs to do clear up n juss get on with it on ere. Thass wot we do where I live n us tenants also ave a part to play in keepin areas clean n litter free n all.
Nah not the grim party there even worse. Lib Dems doin litter picks all over the borough before the grims jumped on the band wagon. Abahrt time the LDs got in n all.
Wasn’t it only a year or two ago when they voted through cuts to street cleaning? Our street has got noticeably untidier since and the same is doubtless true across the borough. Can’t seem them doing a campaign video around the start of the Ridgeway which is constantly full of rubbish.
It’s clearly a shameless pre-election spin campaign to lump loads of money they were having going to have to spend anyway into a big total and pretend it’s suddenly all action from Greenwich Labour. Obviously running scared of the Greens in the north of the borough and Reform in the south.
Sadly you can report issues time and time again to Greenwich Council yet no action is taken. Email them and again no response. Sadly it is the same people fly tipping again and again.
Sacha is right leading up to the local elections in May 2026 we will see more end of gimmicks and promises from the present adminiztration (Councillors) which will all be forgotten if reelected again.
I live on Greenwich Peninsula and have been litter picking in my spare time for five years now. I’ve collected over 1000 bags of rubbish and fly tipping. It’s getting exhausting and depressing due to the huge increase in bulky fly tipping hot spots. I would say a word in the councils defence (regardless of the party) – putting the number of street cleaner boots on the ground and enforcement would bankrupt the council. The massive dumping level all over means that every cleared patch just respawns the next day. A lot of it are private companies picking up bulky waste from people who can’t get a council collection and then ditching hauls at night. Surely the solution is to put way more resource into free/cheaper than private quick council bulky waste removals? We have a 2 month waiting list here.