Two HGV trailers have been dumped in laybys on A1306 New Road, Rainham – one of which resident Colin Giles says has been there since February 2024, and the other since Christmas.
Colin, who lives in Jordans Way, initially reported the issue to Havering Council around three months after he spotted the first vehicle, and has since notified the authority on “several occasions” about fly-tipping building up behind the trailers.
But the council said that each lorry will cost “several thousand pounds” to remove and therefore has not yet made any attempt to get rid of them.
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Colin told the Recorder trying to resolve the issue is like “knocking your head against a brick wall”.
“I reported it and I know friends and neighbours who have also reported it, so they [the council] are well aware of it,” Colin said.
“The residents feel that Rainham’s just being dumped on.
“If it was in another part of the borough would the trailers still be there now? I don’t think so.
“I think we’re getting palmed off with it.”
Colin added that he has been told by the council that one of the trailers contains asbestos – which Havering Council has not confirmed with this paper.
The laybys where the vehicles have been dumped are also in close proximity to Arnold’s Field, the illegal landfill site which is the cause of near constant smoke in that area of Rainham.
Colin worries that the council is leaving the area vulnerable to other problems the longer it leaves the trailers there, including the lorries and rubbish catching alight.
One of the vehicles has been in the layby of A1306 New Road, Rainham for more than a year (Image: Colin Giles)
He also pointed out that they are near Harris Academy Rainham, so many school children have to pass the dumped vehicles “every day”.
“Surely there gets to a point where we need to do something for the community, and that way you don’t attract any other issues,” Colin told the Recorder.
The Jordans Way resident has reached out to Cllr Jacqueline McArdle, who represents the Rainham and Wennington ward, for help in raising awareness of the abandoned trailers.
Cllr McArdle told the Recorder that she has been “chasing this for months”.
She said: “They have to source external funding as they have no way of removing a trailer.
“They remove the rubbish [behind the trailers] every now and then but it just comes back.”
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A Havering Council spokesperson said it is looking into how the trailers and the “waste stored in them” can be removed “safely and at the lowest cost to the council and our residents”.
They said: “Each trailer will cost several thousand pounds to move and dispose of.
“It is also extremely likely it will happen again once we have removed these vehicles and we need to see what can be done to act as a deterrent.
“We want to see what we can put in place to catch those dumping the vehicles so we can take the necessary action and prevent ongoing costs.
“We understand residents’ concerns but have assessed that the vehicles in the meantime are not causing any risk to the public or traffic.”
This paper also asked if the council knows what type of waste is in these trailers, but did not get a response.
