Home to nearly 180,000 people across its 22.2 square miles, it is the only London borough to be located on both sides of the River Thames.
Most of the main urban areas in the borough are based along the riverside and they include Barnes, Mortlake, Kew, Richmond, Twickenham, Teddington and Hampton.
The borough is extremely popular with tourists who are attracted by its parks – Kew Gardens and Hampton Court Park, plus the Royal Parks of Bushy Park and the vast Richmond Park; fine buildings, most notably Hampton Court Palace; the home of Rugby Union at Twickenham; the London Wetlands Centre and a wide range of interesting speciality shops, good pubs and restaurants.
Veolia Environmental Services has a 10 year contract to provide refuse collection and recycling services, which began in April 2004 and a further 10 year contract to provide landscaping and grounds maintenance services, which began in April 2003.
Special Events
Rugby Union
Twickenham Stadium is the home of the Rugby Football Union. The Six nations tournament alone brings in excess of 75,000 spectators per game. The contract undertakes all cleansing, before, during and after each game. Veolia Environmental Services has just commenced a trial recycling initiative to try to capture the huge number of drinks cans and cartons and glass bottles that are discarded at these events. The stadium also has a number of concerts each year with artists such as the Rolling Stones pulling in a colossal number of fans. The clean-up after these concerts carries on long into the night.
The Boat Race
The world famous battle between the light blues and dark blues brings another huge turn out of spectators to the Borough. Again the contract cleans up after this national institution.
Village Fetes and Fairs
The Borough is made up of a number of small towns all of whom hold various fetes and fairs during the summer season. We provide cleansing and recycling services during these events.