Local residents and ward councillors asked the Council to remove the dustcart depot from Vale Street by this September, as the council had promised.

The Council’s decision?

It has decided to keep the dustcarts in Norwood for at least four more years and increase the likely frequency of truck visits on Saturdays.

In 2007, Lambeth Council gained temporary planning permission to site dustcarts at the Vale Street Depot.

Labour-controlled Lambeth and the local MP said this was only a stop-gap solution.  Residents and ward councillors strongly opposed having dustcarts on Vale Street at all, as we didn’t trust the council to remove them as promised.

Now, at a Planning Committee, the Council has confirmed its betrayal.

Gipsy Hill councillor Andrew Gibson says:  “The best way to get rid of the dustcarts from our residential area now is to bring about a change in control at Town Hall.  We have the opportunity to do that next May at the council election.  We must never forget Labour’s betrayal of Norwood.”

Residents in West Norwood have been badly let down by Lambeth Council and the local MP.

In 2006, Lambeth Council decided to site a dustcart depot in Vale Street, West Norwood.  This was supposedly temporary until September 2009, in order to create space for a much-needed new school in East Brixton and to allow time to build a permanent depot for the trucks.

Local residents and ward councillors strongly opposed this scheme.  The trucks are too large for the surrounding residential streets.  Councillors also said that once the trucks were moved that the council could not be trusted to remove them. However, the council pressed ahead, gaining planning permission after the local Labour MP submitted a last-minute letter in favour of siting the trucks here.

Recently, our worst fears proved correct. The council has announced that it has not yet created a permanent site, and indeed for now it will not even try to do so.  Unfortunately, little progress has been made in developing the new school.  It will therefore continue with the “temporary” site in Vale Street, possibly for up to four years, even though it admits that this will cost £1m – £1.5m per year more than a new single site elsewhere.  This is a betrayal.  Conservative councillors warned the council and the MP what would happen, but they would not listen.

The council still needs an extension to its planning permission to allow the trucks to remain here.  Please sign the petition below to oppose an extension of planning permission.