The war on soggy newspapers - play your part

Before the deluge: at 8am, the newspapers have already begun to pile up.

As someone who can't stand a minute alone with his own thoughts, the explosion in free London newspapers has been a godsend: there's always one lying around to read if I'm stuck on a train without a book or my blackberry.

However, there is a darker side to the free newspaper phenomenon.

In Brockley, the specially-designed bins, placed outside the station for people to leave their newspapers at the end of their jouney have proven woefully inadequate for the task. Too small and hard to use, they are not emptied quickly enough, which means that they a constantly overflowing, and people are increasingly opting to chuck their papers beside the bins, creating Brockley's biggest piece of public sculpture: a monstrous papier-mache mountain of wet newspaper, that can't be recycled.

The problem has been raised with our local MP at the latest Brockley Commmon Partnership meeting and it's been agreed that it's a problem that needs addressing. However, in the mean time, please play your part and, if you find the bins overflowing, take your newspaper home with you.