The Tip we live in

Last time I gave reasons why roads are cleaned at different frequencies and how litter and rubbish in a locality is graded to warrant a clean up. To make you aware of where your road stands in the cleaning league table, I was going to give a list of the Parish roads and their zone values and to advise that EFDC will not clean private roads. But now, thanks to Cllr. Holly Whitbread and George McCreight from EFDC Waste Management, I have the complete list and to save boring you to tears reading through it all, I’ll just say that apart from - Wellington Road junction to the Talbot roundabout and possibly (as there is a discrepancy and not sufficient detail) the entire length of the Epping Road (B.181) to the Parish boundary at the Plain – is classed as zone M. Everywhere else is in the Low zone - L. This includes roads such as London Road, Latton leading into High Road, Thornwood Common that is directly in the line of fire from the likes of McDonald’s and the petrol stations that sell take-away hot drinks and cans of pop and booze. Personally, I feel the whole zone thing needs looking at. Especially as District Planning has allowed the proliferation of fast-food outlets and places like the petrol stations to sell hot and caned drinks and we all know what happens to the empties? I have heard of a deposit scheme in the pipeline to put a value on this sort of waste. This is surely for the better? I can remember as a kid scouring the local streets for a discarded R. Whites lemonade bottle to take back to the local sweet shop to gain the 6d. deposit. Not easy, as glass bottles had a high value back then.

Here’s a good one:

Spot the Difference.

The above photo was taken on 21st October 2020 in Rye Hill Road, Thornwood Common, which is classed as an L zone, so should receive a clean at least every fortnight.

Can you spot the difference? This photo taken on 31st May this year shows the same bags of rubbish still in the same location after 222 days!!!! Now I may be wrong but something tells me we have a problem here. I was naively checking on Rye Hill Road to do a litter pick for the Great British Spring Clean but found the piles of rubbish there overwhelming!

Jimmy Waters (North Weald Bassett Citizen of the Year 2016)

Deadline for submitting news, features, letters, photos etc is 15th July