In April 2025, Merton Council will launch a new and improved street cleaning and waste collection service, putting residents’ needs at the heart of its approach.

These services are some of the most important that we provide, and that’s why the new service has been designed around what residents told us they wanted to see.

Residents told us that street cleaning wasn’t meeting expectations. The Council listened to residents and acted, ending the previous contract and bringing street cleaning in-house to be run directly by the Council.

From April, street cleaning will be directly managed by the council, ensuring greater control and the ability to deliver a better service for Merton’s communities.

As part of this new and improved service, every residential street in the borough will be cleaned at least once a week, with town centres receiving more frequent cleaning. A new rapid response team will be introduced to address reports and issues swiftly, while a new dedicated graffiti removal service will help keep neighbourhoods clean and welcoming.

Following a robust procurement process, bin collections will continue to be contracted out and delivered by Veolia, with improvements to the service. After a successful pilot, our pop-up tip in the community will be made permanent, six times a year, to help reduce fly tipping, and we will also be adding more frequent collections on our big estates.

Next year, we will also be introducing food waste collections for flats above shops and for commercial properties that subscribe to our service.

These changes will begin in April 2025 and to ensure a smooth transition the dates of your collections will remain the same.

Councillor Stephen Alambritis, Cabinet Member for Transport and Cleaner Streets, said:

“We made a promise that we would review the existing street cleaning and waste services and listen to the thousands of residents who told us what they want to see going forward. Today, I am pleased to announce that we are delivering on that promise with plans for new and improved services that will benefit people living in Merton.

“Alongside bringing back weekly street cleaning for every residential street in the borough, the Council has secured a number of important improvements to how we clean our streets with our new Council-run service, as well as our enhanced waste collections which will continue to be delivered by Veolia.

“This is a fresh start for street cleaning in Merton and an opportunity to build on the success of our waste collection service. These improvements show our commitment to making Merton a cleaner, greener, and safer borough for everyone.”