Fly-tipping and keeping streets clean

We regularly clean all public streets in Waltham Forest, including the pavements. This helps keep the borough a tidy and safe place for residents and visitors.

Each street has a scheduled cleaning day (or days) each week. We clean the busiest streets more often, so some streets are cleaned daily.

We clean all the boroughs streets regularly, but sometimes things happen between cleanings. Please report any street cleaning issues to us. We will inspect the street within 24 hours, and if necessary, take action.

If your request is related to drains or gully cleansing or a flood risk: please complete the Highways issues report form and select ‘Blocked gully’.

Our street cleaners:

• pick up loose litter
• empty street litter bins
• remove dog fouling
• remove loose grit, gravel and broken glass
• sweep up autumn leaves

Our cleaners may leave sacks of street sweepings and rubbish bin waste on the street for collection later that day.

Our street cleaners don’t:

• clean on private land
• clean on private roads
• clean on Waltham Forest Housing estates. Please contact Waltham Forest Housing directly, between 8am and 6pm, on 020 8496 3000.   

If you see a large amount of dumped rubbish on a street, tell our fly tipping team instead.

Please don't drop litter. We have over 2,000 street bins across Waltham Forest. Most of these are split, with one section for general rubbish and another for recycling. 

Littering carries a fixed penalty charge of £150.

Examples of litter include:

• cigarette butts
• gum
• food packaging
• empty drinks cans