Most houses in CPZs in Brentford are old and all sooner or later need quite a lot of refurbishment. Time expired roofs& electrics, dry rot, woodworm and damp, live plaster, lead pipes, are all common to houses of this age and type.Most have no side access and, as most will bear out, not even enough space to contain a wheelie bin without it being in front of a door or window.When it comes to remedial or update works, safe working space as well as stowage of materials is unachievable. A skip is the only practicable solution and that is not a cheap option.The drop and load is not a practicable option as there may not be a space, operational access, or the timing may not coincide due to weather, structural snag or so on. Everything has to be ready to load and there may be too little or too much.Builders are very expensive and if skilled labour is redeployed in having to remove waste bit by bit the time involved costs and the project is slowed down greatly.Yes the skip does take up a space. But so do the builders vans and all the delivery vehicles. The plethora of long wheelbase vans is a far bigger problem than a skip.At the end of the line, it's the resident/client who picks up the bill which is never less than quoted, but many of these 'extra' charges' can almost break the budget for what is for most, a very expensive outlay and not always one that was planned. It is not right for a resident to have to pay considerably more than another resident in another street for no real good reason.It does not justify a higher rate compared to those who do not live in a CPZ.The same problem applies to those areas as well. A space used up, Vans and delivery vehicles blocking roads, just the same.It is wrong to make the assumption that a CPZ = Affluent area. It does not.Most CPZs exist here because of external factors, the close proximity of a Transport hub, a major place of work with limited on site parking, or new developments with inadequate parking. Or all of the above. They are problems foisted upon a district. It bears no relation to the fiscal abilities of many, if not most residents.The worst thing about CPZs is it causes problems for the elderly and lonely and we are quite fortunate in that we do not have a draconian zone which has minimised this.But for council tax paying residents to be divided and discriminated in such a way and milked as a cash cow is plain wrong.If it's one charge for all for garden waste irrespective of the size of your garden, then it should be the same for this.
Raymond Havelock ● 3413d