In a fourth day of action, Barking and Dagenham Council and Reside joined forces to clear up Gascoigne Estate, Barking and encourage residents to dispose of their waste correctly.

The estate is experiencing a few challenges around waste, including rubbish being placed in the wrong bags, waste not being disposed of correctly and occasional difficulties with bin collections due to access issues. By working together and following the waste disposal guidance, the estate can stay clean, safe, and welcoming for everyone.

The Gascoigne Estate has an Underground Refuse System (URS), which is a modern waste‑collection infrastructure designed to improve cleanliness, safety and public realm quality across the neighbourhood.

The Day of Action brought services together from the council including Street Cleansing, Caretaking and Environmental Enforcement as well as officers from Reside to engage with and educate residents.

Officers worked together to litter pick, clear fly-tipped waste and spoke to residents about how to dispose of their waste correctly. In total, they cleared over half tonne of waste on top of the general waste.

Residents were issued with the correct sized bin bags (20 Litres) to fit into the URS – if residents use bigger sized bags they could block up the bins.

Councillor Kashif Haroon, Cabinet Member for Public Realm and Climate Change said: “We know there have been issues over the Gascoigne Estate with the refuse system, but we have rectified this, and we have a crew scheduled to collect from the Underground Refuse System bins three times as long as they can gain safe access.

“I’d like to encourage residents to work with us and make sure that they’re disposing of their waste correctly, whether that’s using the correct sized bags for the bins, not placing their rubbish next to the bins and ordering bulky collections for larger items.”

Nicole Pearson, Grounds Maintenance and Caretaking Contract Manager for B&D Reside attended the Day of Action and said: “It was great to spend some time in the community with residents of the Gascoigne Estate. We heard a lot about how waste collection impacts residents’ lives when it isn’t dealt with properly. Like the Council, we encourage residents to use the URS system as it is designed by using 20l waste bags.

“We also ask residents to report any issues with the bins to us as soon as possible, so that they don’t have an impact on future collections. We’re really pleased to support the Council in delivering a 3-day collection service on the estate, and we’re confident that if we all play our part, this will improve the amenity of the estate”.

As part of their work to tackle fly-tipping in the borough, the council will be installing CCTV cameras on the estate to catch those who continue to dump their waste instead of disposing it correctly. Those caught and identified will be issued with a £500 fine for fly-tipping.

Residents can book bulky waste collections via the council’s website: www.lbbd.gov.uk/rubbish-recycling/bulky-waste-collection/book-bulky-waste-collection