Our Town - What a Dump? Mystery of the Matresses!

Southall is a town In West London and one I regularly travel through. For the most part it's largely a residential area. During my time there I'm amazed at the things I see. One thing has stood out for me though, and now that I've become familiar with the area I've realised it's not something that will change unless action is taken. For some unknown reason the entire town seems to be littered with mattresses!

Now the average person would be aware that bin men don't collect mattresses. They're supposed to be disposed of at a dump. Of course someone who doesn't realise this should really wake up to that fact after their old mattress has been sitting outside their house, uncollected, going on 6 months. Usually I would analyse the issues and reasons behind an issue such as this, whether it's laziness, stupidity, a language barrier problem, or whether there's some kind of mass bladder control epidemic on the rise ...but not this time. 

I don't care why it's happening. It just needs to stop. Just take a look at some of the pictures I've taken of the problem below, and these are just on my normal travel route, there are plenty more scattered all over the local area. This first image really captures the problem and the underlying disrespect that people are showing, the mattresses in it were just dumped on the side of the road... why couldn't they be dumped at the dump!?

There are 3 houses with mattresses as well as other old furniture and junk lying in their front gardens less than 30 seconds from Southall Town Hall! This means the problem is actively being ignored by the council.

As far as I'm concerned there's only one thing to be done. Inform and educate -AND FINE!

Despite individual property ownership rights we all deserve to live in a clean or at least tidy area and shouldn't be subjected to look at other people's junk on our own doorstops, something that is proven to affect property prices. However, the disposal of other people's junk shouldn't be a burden to the tax payers. So here's the plan:

1. Make a record of houses with clear violations e.g. mattresses, couches, furniture in view.
2. Issue those households with notices. The notice should:
   -Identify and inform the owner's of the problem on their property.
   -Educate them of the correct way to dispose of the junk.
   -Notify them of a 2 week period to correct the problem and the consequences of failure to comply.

3. Issue fines to those who fail to do so.

4. The fines should be large. Enough to cover the cost of the council removing the junk as well as a punitive amount to deter future incidents.

5. A name and shame list on the council website. This will embarrass offenders as well as show others (potential offenders as well as dissatisfied residents) that the council is committed to fixing the problem.

I want to hear from the council about this issue and will be Tweeting them and directing them to this page. I'd also like to hear from other local residents affected by this situation. Readers from other towns/cities, does this happen where you live? What's it all about!?