This isn’t desolation row.
It’s Illawarra Street, Allawah where mounds of household rubbish have been dumped since before Christmas leaving the area looking like it has been hit by a cyclone.
The problem has become so bad that pedestrians can’t walk along sections of the footpath and residents can’t park.
And a lot of the dumping has been done from people driving in from outside the area.
One frustrated resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, recorded the scenes this week and sent them to The Leader.
“This is a regular event in Allawah over the annual Christmas and New Year break,” the resident said.
“The clean-up week instructions pertaining to Illawarra Street, Allawah were that nothing was to be put curbside before the 6th of January.
“But rubbish was already being placed on the street one week before Christmas.
“Residents have looked at this disgraceful sight for the past four to five years at this time of year and it is getting worse.
“The bulk of this rubbish does not come from this area and is brought in by people avoiding tip fees such as domestic rubbish removalists charge the customer and then dump the mattresses on clean-up weeks, not to mention the industrial waste.
“It has got to the point that residents are unable to park on the street and pedestrians are unable to use the footpaths.
“Every year we report this to the Council requesting not to book clean up weeks in the holiday seasons, as our mid-year collection, although still large amounts of rubbish are collected in a timely manner.”
The Leader did a drive-by on Thursday morning and the problem was still there.
A Georges River Council spokesperson said the Council’s kerbside clean-up for Illawarra Street, Allawah was scheduled to commence Monday 7 January 2019, and in accordance with the contract in place the contractor has until Friday 11 January to complete the collection of discarded household materials at that location.
“Clean-up instruction leaflets were distributed to residents at the end of December, which stipulated that household items should not be placed out for collection any earlier than one weekend prior to collection, however feedback from residents indicates that a number of residents began this process earlier than advised,” the spokesperson said.
“In instances where items are placed on the kerb too early, Council can instruct residents to remove the items until the scheduled dates.
“Council encourages residents’ cooperation when preparing for a kerbside clean-up, and this includes adhering to any dates stipulated in Council’s communications.
“Following instructions issued by Council helps minimise both the visual and potential environmental health impacts of waste throughout the local area for the duration of any clean-ups.”
