Forum Topic

Leaf fall

Hounslow Highways schedule of picking up leaves can be found here https://hounslowhighways.org/street-cleansing/leaf-fall/. Near the bottom of the page is a link to download the pdf

Iris Hill ● 2164d35 Comments

They were in East Chiswick yesterday and I have to say, they did a wonderful job. I even managed to shift my car so the chap was able to get to the kerb and get all the mush out. Wonderful driver/chap too - big smile on his face. I don't often praise the council, but it was definitely due on this occasion.

J Morse ● 2164d

Quite true. The people actually doing the work seem conscientious and cheerful as well.

Vivienne Cox ● 2164d

I'll never understand though why Hounslow ignores this until the leaves have turned to compost. This is Hartington Road the other day. Given the current emphasis on supposedly safer cycling measures, it would seem a good use of resources to start with the basics.

Bruce Hammal ● 2164d

Thanks Iris - I had been looking for this. Apparently I'll have to wait until February, by which time hopefully the trees will be about to spring into life again!  Brilliant.

Bruce Hammal ● 2164d

But in Acton Green Ealing they swept up a month ago and have left toms of sacks in the streets.

Stephen Gould ● 2164d

Thanks Iris. I notice that Staveley Gdns was to be done on 09/11/20, Did anyone there notice anyone clearing leaves or even notice any difference on the areas HH are responsible? Certainly nothing done in the vicinity of my house.

Bob Guyett ● 2164d

Unfortunately the Environment Agency considers street sweepings to be far too contaminated for composting.  If only Councils cooperated and worked with residents these leaves would not still be on the streets.  The trouble is now that Councils have got used to the paid for gardening collection and residents have got used to having to pay there is less likely to be any cooperation.  Residents have been told not to put garden waste in their wheelie bins...  or they won't be collected or they've read in the Daily Mail that if they brush leaves into the gutter they are guilty of flytippng...  So any better ideas?

Philippa Bond ● 2164d

Does anyone remember the Chiswick shopkeeper (a barber maybe) who got fined for sweeping street-tree  leaves off the pavement in front of his premises? As I recall even Hounslow were shamed into rescinding that one. By the way having posted that picture of the mush in Hartington Road I see that Hartington isn't due to be swept until the end of December!

Bruce Hammal ● 2164d

Unfortunately it gets really dangerous and slippery when all mulched like that and when the leaves are deep around the kerbs it is easy to step off the kerb because you can't see it.  Not good for lots of people and even worse for the older and less mobile.

Philippa Bond ● 2164d

As a long-time former resident of Stamford Brook (recently moved to Grove Park) I always pitied the poor folk of Hounslow. I lived in the last street of Hammersmith & Fulham's territory where quite apart from the dedicated leaf-sweeping during Autumn, our road was swept every single week. We were also entitled to put out all our garden waste in black bags. It still mystifies me that two councils with broadly  similar demands on their resources could behave so differently to their residents. My council tax was a lot lower too. I think it was because council control flipped between Labour and Conservative so they knew they  couldn't take our votes for granted.

Bruce Hammal ● 2164d

Why is this such an issue? I don’t understand why this isn’t done on a very regular basis.  Why are we so impressed that someone done it and done it well. Does it say something about our expectations of the Council?

Maggie Dodge ● 2164d

In response to Maggie's question, it does say volumes about our expectations of Hounslow Highways.  On their leaf clearance page on their website it says:"each ward in the borough will be visited between October and January in addition to the fortnightly cleanse where operatives will remove leaves as part of their day-to-day street cleansing activities. We have also identified areas with higher number of street trees or leaf problems; these have been scheduled within the wards as ‘hotspots’ (indicated by red marker on each map) and will receive repeated visits throughout the season."I don't think so.  Duke Rd is marked as a "hotspot" on their hotspot map but we don't get repeated visits for leaf clearance.  We were done yesterday (hurrah!) but that is the only one we've had and we only got one visit last year and the year before.  And the fortnightly cleanses? - nope, they don't happen. Rubbish remains undisturbed for weeks and weeks.  And the leaf clearance which takes part of these routine fortnightly cleanses? - obviously not.  It's all a fiction.

Marie Power ● 2164d

Wasn't it down today? They had a bit road sweeper doing where ever there were no parked cars

Iris Hill ● 2164d

I had a discussion with HH the other day about this. They said that they were happy to give out green bags so that anyone who swept their pavement could put the leaves in a green bag and let HH know to pick them up. I thought about offering this on W4 and then got too daunted by the logistics of it to offer!

Iris Hill ● 2164d

I had a discussion with HH the other day about this. They said that they were happy to give out green bags so that anyone who swept their pavement could put the leaves in a green bag and let HH know to pick them up. I thought about offering this on W4 and then got too daunted by the logistics of it to offer!

Iris Hill ● 2164d

So more do it yourself initiatives. Really what are we paying for ?

Maggie Dodge ● 2164d

I also had a discussion about the hotspots. They only have a small team to do the webpage, and this has not been altered. (I had wanted Burnaby added to hotspots which is why I brought it up). They intended to have the webpage updated by yesterday but only some of it has been done. They are not doing hotspots anymore. And they have not swept the streets on a regular basis for the past couple of years. I have also taken up with them that this is on the website. When the contract with HH was negotiated it was not strong enough. You can't expect Council Officers to know about negotiating. And so HH took on the contract and for the first 5 years they did a good job because it was in the contract. They once they got past this where they had to bring the network up to a certain standard, it was about maintaining it. So staff were cut and it was after that that streets stopped being swept. Unfortunately LBH does not have teeth on this contract and whilst there are some sanctions they are around things such as fly tips. The contract lasts about 25 years I think so we are stuck.  Why don't any of you who have complaints take this up with your Councillors as well as putting it on here?

Iris Hill ● 2164d

Waste collection, exponentially increasing fly tips, recycling, potholes for a start on a fixed price contract. Did you even notice that HH/LBH has kept all our services going without a break during lockdown? Did you  praise that? And that was even with HH telling staff not to come in if they had to come by public transport. In a time of drastic Council funding cuts, why do people expect everything to be as they want it instead of being amazed that the Council is able to keep on offering services. Look at Councils like Northampstead (I think it was) that went bankrupt last year

Iris Hill ● 2164d

Ps: sorry about duplicate posts! Also HH have said that if there are particularly bad spots please report it on Fixmystreet and they will aim to get a team out to deal with them. Personally yes, I believe in DIY action. Why not? Times are difficult and the exercise is good for all of us. I have also been doing some weeds, not a job I like. But HH have been having problems because they can't spray them and it has to be done manually. This is incredibly time consuming. They reckon to finish off the weeding when it comes to the deep cleanse, but I am nagging them about next year's strategy for weeds

Iris Hill ● 2164d

Iris-do you have a contact email or phone number for HH please so I can ask for some green bags? I tried DMing you but some sort of error code flashed up, so I am not sure if it went through.

Margot Crowther ● 2164d

So many people have kept working through the pandemic, Iris why do you insist on defending them?

Maggie Dodge ● 2164d

Iris - in reply to your "Why don't any of you who have complaints take this up with your Councillors as well as putting it on here?".  Funnily enough I did just that before I posted on this thread.  I agree absolutely that you should take these things up with those who have control over them.  I don't buy the thing about not expecting Council officers to know about negotiating - if it's a key part of their job (which seems to be the case, given what you have said about the binding nature of this particular duff contract) then they should be recruited for or trained in those skills.  But helpful to know that what is on the HH webpage is indeed completely incorrect. HH has had to work harder and smarter through Covid like all firms and I'm sure that everyone understands that.  But Covid is not the problem here by the looks of things - and taking on board what you said about staff cuts, the seeming ineptitude of LBH contract negotiators and the far less onerous contract conditions that resulted.

Marie Power ● 2163d

Words fail me. You are clearly determined to diss everyone . There are lots of things I criticise HH for and I and others tell them. But at least we try to be constructive and not snipe from the safety of the forum. What have you done to try and make things better instead of sniping?

Iris Hill ● 2163d

For Margaret.  I will dm you

Iris Hill ● 2163d

You are obviously very touchy on the subject of the Council. You are in fact very confrontational. You were the same when they didn’t address the weed problem.  You clearly have issues. I just want the Council to do their job.  Take a chill pill

Maggie Dodge ● 2163d

I have criticisms of the Council and Hounslow Highways. But I do something to try and make it better rather than sitting on the sidelines sniping. Yes — many people kept on working through lockdown and the whole pandemic — bus drivers, NHS workers for instance. Your remark belittling the fact that the Council and Hounslow Highways kept on providing services during this time is disgraceful which is why I am "confrontational". I admire good people trying to do a good job despite the sniping from people like you.  I also have admiration for the Councillors who give time up to — old fashioned term here — serve. Although I have no time for quite a few of them. Not a job I could do. 

Iris Hill ● 2163d

Don't forget the contract with HH was negotiated 11/12 years ago and at that stage I don't think Council officers had the skills necessary to negotiate "smartly" . A couple of years ago there was an exhibition about the plans for the Golden Mile and I spoke to one of the Council team there. I said I was concerned that developers would just run rings around them in terms of the terms of the contracts, and I was told that things are now very different and they have learned from the mistakes of previous contracts. I hope this is true, but developers have all kinds of tricks!

Iris Hill ● 2163d

Margaret - I also tried to dm you and got the error message. I see also that in the new version of W4 there seems to be no way to dm people. I will put a general post here to see if anyone knows about this

Iris Hill ● 2163d

Thank you Iris for what you do in letting everyone know.  It is difficult to know how to help.  I thought the hotspot idea for leaves was a very good one considering that leaf drop does not happen to programme.  Fly-tipping breeds fly-tipping unfortunately so is bound to command a greater urgency. It seems to me that everyone wants a valeting service that suits them in all ways but doesn't want to pay for it.  We all need to compromise and find best solutions for ourselves - and remember to be very skeptical about promises - particularly from any politicians!  

Philippa Bond ● 2163d

Thanks Philippa. I would never trust a politician with the exception of a handful of them! I was born cynical ;-) But I got fed up with complaining to myself (and long suffering husband!) about the state of the streets, and hearing that "they" ought to do something. So decided that it was time to try and do something myself. My crowning achievements? Getting a bin put in at the top of Harvard Hill! Also getting drainage sorted out after years of flooding in the road in a part of Burlington Road.

Iris Hill ● 2163d

I have checked with Hounslow Highways and it was what I thought. Can you put in a request on Fix my Street for green bags and ask for the request to go to the Comms team. They will sort it out from there

Iris Hill ● 2163d

Thanks can’t make head or tail of it. My ward says Thursday week 2. How can I determine what week that is?

Alina Dansord ● 2162d

How do I get green bags. I frequently sweep at least 10 bags of leaves from outside house. I take to tip but would prefer if Hounslow would collect

Sean Wales ● 2162d

I will put the link to the ward schedule tomorrow. Sean- go to Fix my street and log an enquiry. Ask for the green bags and why and ask for the request to be sent to the Comms team who have agreed to organise them.

Iris Hill ● 2162d

If you go here https://hounslowhighways.org/street-cleansing/ you will see that there is a download at the bottom of the page to download the two weekly calendar. You can also find near the bottom of the page a list of wards and what week they are done

Iris Hill ● 2162d