Wandsworth Council Leader Simon Hogg and MP Fleur Anderson will face Putney residents on Saturday at a community meeting where frustrated locals plan to challenge them on traffic congestion and bin collection failures – neither of which appear in the official promotional materials.
The “Listening to You” drop-in session at St Margaret’s Church is billed as covering the council’s Cleaner Borough Plan and new bulky waste collections. But locals plan to submit questions about the traffic chaos that has brought Upper Richmond Road, Lower Richmond Road and Putney Bridge Road to daily standstills, as well as bin collection problems that have left residents filing monthly failure reports.
“No mention of traffic discussions so I believe they are NOT listening to us at all,” wrote one Putney resident in a local group, referring to a traffic report that was handed to the council but appears to have been ignored.
The meeting runs from 11am to 1pm on Saturday 11 October at St Margaret’s Putney on Putney Park Lane, with the Q&A session starting at 11.30am. Residents can attend in person or submit questions in advance to hello@wandsworth.gov.uk.
What residents want to know
Traffic congestion tops the list of local’s frustrations, with residents reporting daily gridlock on major routes through Putney and questioning why a detailed traffic report they submitted through the Putney Action Group appears to have disappeared into what one resident called “a dark hole.”
Bin collection failures under a new waste collection contract have left multiple residents filing monthly reports with the council. “We’re doing our part documenting every missed collection,” said one local resident. “But we’re not seeing any improvement.”
Questions also remain about the meeting format itself. At a previous community session with Transport Minister Jenny Yates, residents report she refused to take questions from the floor, instead only addressing pre-selected queries. It’s unclear whether Saturday’s Q&A will allow open questions from attendees or follow a similar restricted format.
With local elections scheduled for May 2025, residents note this should be “peak listening time” for councillors. Five of the six local councillors representing West Putney and Thamesfield are Conservative, though it’s not clear whether all will have speaking opportunities at the Labour-organised event.
What’s officially on the agenda
The council’s promotional materials focus on two main topics. The Cleaner Borough Plan promises more jet washing and street sweeping, with litter bins emptied more frequently. The new bulky waste service offers every household two free collections per year, with each collection covering up to four items such as mattresses, washing machines or furniture.
Council Leader Simon Hogg, MP Fleur Anderson, local councillors and police representatives will all attend. Free lunch and refreshments will be provided.
