A resident who was so fed up with piles of rubbish outside a gym in Shirley that he stuck a flyer on the waste has celebrated his successful campaign.
The Gym Group has apologised after missed bin collections for months meant the bins had overflown and rubbish spilled out onto Shirley Road and the car park.
Tony Weafer was so annoyed that he took it upon himself to print off a flyer and stick them to the bin bags.
They said: "Attention: The Gym Group. Please show some respect for the community in which you operate & dispose of your rubbish!"
The 69-year-old then took a picture of it and sent it to The Gym Group's head office in Croydon, along with a handwritten note asking for its removal.
Mr Weafer, a member of community group Shirley and Freemantle Watch, told the Echo that rubbish issues in the area had been tolerated for long enough.
He said: “It has been like it for months; the bins have overflown, and the rubbish has spilled out onto the road in the car park.
“I’ve raised the problem with the gym, but you just don’t get anywhere, and the council won’t do anything because all of the waste is on private land, so it’s the gym’s responsibility.”
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He added: “You walk by and see the rubbish each day – as have many people – and you feel as if it’s your responsibility to do something when really it’s the gym’s and it should have been dealt with long ago before the problem got out of hand.”
When contacted by the Echo, a spokesperson for The Gym Group said: “We apologise for the recent build-up of rubbish next to our Southampton Shirley gym, unfortunately this was due to missed collections by our waste removal provider.
“We take our commitment to being a responsible business in the local community very seriously and have been working hard to resolve this issue.
“We have been assured there will be daily rubbish collections until all remaining rubbish is cleared and we have significantly tidied the area too.”
After the Echo approached the paper last week, The Gym Group disposed of the last remaining rubbish outside their premises.
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