Residents of a Greenwich street are fed up with drivers who they claim urinate on people’s houses and have no respect for the local area. Fingal Street is in East Greenwich, just off Woolwich Road.
Franck Kiangala, 59, has lived in the street for over 25 years and said residents are often disturbed by the behavior of takeaway drivers for the Papa John’s and Morley’s Chicken stores on Woolwich Road. He said the speed at which riders are constantly going up and down the street on motorbikes is a “disaster waiting to happen”.
The resident told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “We’ve just seen the degeneration on a daily basis… Post-Covid, this takeaway delivery economy just exploded and they’re here every hour of the day. There’s rubbish going on to be collected on the ground, sometimes you have several half-eaten pizzas all over the floor.”
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He said: “The drivers themselves just don’t care one bit. They gather around. In the summer we can’t sleep. My bedroom window faces the street and they have these loud conversations and have parties.”
He added: “They eat the food and they throw it away and you can’t go past that alley, it stinks of urine. If you walk through Fingal Street field everyone complains about the same thing. My neighbor keeps getting guys p** *holding up to her houses all the time… There are a lot of bottles filled with urine on the street. It’s just crazy.”
The resident said meaningful talks with the businesses to resolve the issues have been “non-existent”, and that councilors have repeatedly told him the shops’ behavior was fine. He added that he felt the end of Woolwich Road closer to Greenwich Park was kept cleaner than the area next to Fingal Street.
Mr Kiangala sent a petition to Greenwich Council last month, asking the authority to require the Morley’s Chicken and Papa John’s stores on Woolwich Road to start behaving in a socially responsible manner. Labor councilor Ann-Marie Cousins, cabinet member for community safety and enforcement for Greenwich Council, said in a written response that the authority was limited in its ability to take enforcement action against drivers who are usually self-employed and work for various shops.
She added that the council’s business engagement team had found no evidence of littering from the businesses on the pavement outside during a visit last December. They claimed that several motorcyclists were present at the time and acted reasonably.
Sabina Bertorelle, 53, moved to Fingal Street nine years ago and said the whole feel of the area has been changed by the takeaways. She said locals often feel intimidated by up to ten drivers congregating at the end of the road at the same time.
She told LDRS: “The rubbish is just disgusting. The amount of rubbish they leave on that side of the road is appalling and then they just pee and do all sorts of things… Apart from being dirty they have no respect for the area for people living here.”
Another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said they had lived on the street for almost 40 years. They argued that while the littering issue was frustrating, they felt the council had a greater obligation not to carry out waste collections more often.
They told the LDRS: “They dump it there and then the foxes break it up and it goes everywhere, but I blame the council. It’s not their fault. If there’s no bins around, where are they going to put it?”
The manager of the Morley’s store on Woolwich Road said he was aware of the complaints from residents and that the bins around the store are properly managed. He said takeaway drivers are not employed by Morley’s and work for food delivery companies such as Just Eat, Deliveroo and Uber Eats.
He told LDRS: “Some drivers come in to deliver food for me. Every time I tell them neighbors are always complaining and they shouldn’t bother the area. Drivers sometimes listen and sometimes they don’t. Two or three times, I and drivers have been arguing about messing up. In my area (around the store) I clean everything every other day.”
A Papa Johns spokesperson told LDRS: “We were extremely disappointed to hear that drivers were causing concern in the local area. These drivers are not employed by Papa Johns, we use external delivery partners. We can confirm that we have been in contact with our partners to say that we do not tolerate this behavior because it does not reflect our corporate values. We want to be a good neighbor and are sorry to those who have suffered the disruption.”
A JustEat spokesperson said all couriers delivering on its behalf were expected to act respectfully and responsibly at all times. They said the company welcomes discussions with Greenwich Council, other delivery apps and the restaurants to find a way to address residents’ concerns.
They added: “If we ever become aware that a courier delivering on our behalf has acted in a way that does not uphold the high standards we hope to deliver, we will investigate and take appropriate action where necessary.”
A Deliveroo spokesperson told LDRS: “Deliveroo takes its responsibility in the communities where we operate very seriously and we are proud to support local restaurant partners by connecting them with customers in the area. We regularly communicate with riders about respecting the neighborhoods where they work and we are reaching out to restaurant partners in Greenwich to identify opportunities to address these issues.”
A spokesperson for Greenwich Council told LDRS: “We sympathize with the residents of Fingal Street and thank them for bringing this to our attention. We are currently considering their application. We are committed to keeping our neighborhoods vibrant, safe and attractive and this is why We are taking every step in our power to do so.”
They added: “Street cleaning on Fingal Street is scheduled weekly and street cleaning takes place on Woolwich Road daily. We have fined Papa John’s and Morley’s Chicken for leaving waste outside on non-collection days and if this continues it could result in further fines or prosecution.”
The spokesperson said many takeaway drivers are self-employed and the authority is writing to Uber Eats to remind its staff to be considerate of residents. They said residents can complain directly to the delivery companies and report any crime directly to the police. Uber Eats and Stuart, another food delivery service, were contacted for comment, but had not responded at the time of publication.
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