FARNHAM Town Council deplores the long-running, untidy and dirty state of the passageway from Central car park to The Borough, where businesses persistently leave overflowing bins. The council believes the issue which dates back to 2007 needs to be laid to rest.

Councillors highlighted that the bins by Boots Opticians are located on one of the main walkways into the town and its state is in stark contrast to, and degrades from, the efforts to keep the town tidy and the work put into Farnham in Bloom and the Christmas lights.

A motion was put to councillors by town council leader, John Ward, saying: “This has been a long-running sore for the town and throughout my time as councillor various attempts have been made to sort out this undesirable situation but it’s only got worse.

“Recently these bins. as well as being a nuisance in the alley, are partially blocking the pavement of The Borough. I am hugely disappointed by what I read about the reaction from several of the businesses. I believe that it is time now for some strong action by this council.”

Boots is prepared to help resolve this situation, but the town council stated that it is “surprised” and “disappointed” by the antipathy of the other businesses as reported in the Community Enhancement Working Group notes and the council is concerned that these bins, as well as being “unsightly” and a “nuisance” to pedestrians, now represent a health hazard.

Carole Cockburn, said: “We need to get firm on these things because we’ve tried doing the softly, softly approach. You come up sometimes and it almost makes you retch with the amount of rubbish and the smells.

“We are getting to the point now that we have to stop it, I support this in which ever way we can do this and go about it as firmly as we possibility can.”

Farnham Town Council will approach Waverley Borough Council requesting a bye-law dealing with bins in all the towns alleyways and walkways and make all efforts including recourse to law, to have these bins removed within the next six months.

Farnham resident Mark Whitford has been fighting a long battle to rectify the problem and wrote to Boots head office, which informed him that the team has made a huge effort to keep the alley clean and have been working alongside the council to do so. And although the staff are contracted as sales advisors and not street cleaners, they have tried their best to keep the mess to a minimum.

In reply to his letter they also mentioned that the bins in the alleyway attract rubbish from passers-by, especially on Friday and Saturday nights and not from the business as its rubbish is locked away in a specific bin.

The area had been cleared once again on Tuesday after a month of pushing for it to be done, speaking prior to the clearing, Mr Whitford said: “The rubbish surrounding and underneath the bins is getting worse and building up over at least the past month. We have a rat problem in Farnham which makes it all even worse. Three months ago I completely cleared the mess myself hoping that by example things would change. That obviously did not work.”