Wandsworth dubbed the 'French Alps' after Christmas tree collection delay

A London town has been dubbed the 'French Alps' after a veritable forest of Christmas trees were left abandoned on streets.

The old spruce trees have been pilling up on the pavements of Furzedown in Wandsworth.

The council said its staff had been "working flat out" to clear the backlog of 100,000 festive trees still littering the borough.

The authority said the collections, coupled with contractor staff absences due to Covid, was taking longer than hoped.

But residents took to Twitter to express their anger and concern over the trees they said were dangerous to people who were visually impaired or had a disability.

Adam Seymour-Davies, a director at Aspire Furzedown, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "It's like the French Alps in Furzedown.

"Furzedown is a wonderful area to live and work. Our community cares about our neighbourhood and it's such a shame to see the council not living up to their promises of free Christmas tree collections."

"I'm concerned for those with visual impairment and those with mobility issues – the pavements are blocked all over the neighbourhood."

@wandbc are you planning to collect these Christmas trees, which have been littering our neighbourhood since the new year? Both the promised collection days have been missed. Not a great look…..#Furzedown #treegraveyard #wandsworth pic.twitter.com/lqS3a5ysBF

— Aspire Furzedown (@AspireFurze) January 18, 2022

The same seems to be happening in other parts of the borough. Kat Storr said on Twitter: "Same issue over here in Tooting Graveney. It's 18th Jan and there are around 15 trees still all over the place on our short street. "Please can you sort this [Wandsworth Council] asap? I've flagged this 4/5 times now." Maureen Docherty also said on Twitter: "I've noticed rather a lot of Christmas trees waiting patiently for collection around my area of Wandsworth… advice please." A Wandsworth Council spokesperson said: "We are working flat out to clear all the trees that residents want collected, but with around 100,000 in total, this is a task that always takes some time to complete. "Coupled with a high rate of contractor staff absence due to Covid, it is taking slightly longer than we'd hoped for – which is why we are asking our residents to please bear with us while we continue these efforts. "It is perhaps also worth pointing out that not every borough provides a free doorstep collection service as is the case in Wandsworth. "Some boroughs don't collect at all while others require their residents to deliver their trees to centralised drop -ff points, resulting in more journeys by car."