He calls himself Robert ‘Unbranded’ and he’s been asked to “move on, or the police will be called.” Sounds like a young troublemaker? In fact this is a seventy-two-year-old retired black cab driver and long-term resident of respectable Redbridge, who is mounting a solitary, peaceful protest against what he sees as Tesco’s failure to safeguard the environment.
Robert decided to demonstrate against “plastic poison” after Tesco failed to fix a broken fence at the perimeter of its Woodford Green store. Tesco’s customers are taking rubbish through the hole in the fence and dumping it in the lake on Roding Lane.
“My mission is simple,” Robert explains, “to preserve the beauty of my local area, particularly Roding Lake. I want to act as a friend to our local authority and organisations like Tesco, to tackle this issue together. But they see me as the enemy.”
He was close to tears as he went on to describe the extent of the problem: “Nothing can thrive here in Roding Valley. There are countless Tesco trolleys, plastic bags and bottles – rubbish which not only takes away from our beautiful area, but destroys the habitat for our birds and squirrels as well.”
Robert spent his Christmas cleaning up the polluted area, single handed: “I rescued 40 trolleys from the lake and returned them to the supermarket”.
Robert raised first his concerns with the Tesco store manager in November, and was assured that the fencing would be repaired by the New Year. Three months on, however, “no one is taking responsibility” and the fencing remains unfit for purpose.
“Tesco have failed to keep their word and therefore I can only assume they do not care about the effect they are having on our environment,” Robert concludes.
Holding homemade banners with hand-written slogans – ‘Fix your ff’ing fence’, ‘Ban plastic poison’ and ‘Bash plastic trash’, Robert is doing all he can to draw attention to Tesco’s failure “to take some social responsibility.”
He insists he has the right to protest: “I will not move until the fencing is fixed. We are entitled to live in a clean and safe environment. I will be here protesting every day until something is done.”
The Tesco manager did not wish to comment, but he was due to attend a meeting with Robert after he took his concerns to the Environmental Agency.
