Day 292 - 01 Nov 96 - Page 28
1 residents' complaints about environment/index.html">litter over a number of years,
2 to the store, to McDonald's head office and to the local
3 council, and in fact even to government minister Nicholas
4 Scot who was the local MP who had himself written to
5 McDonald's president Paul Preston as a result, passing on
6 residents' concerns.
7
8 The complaints continued despite the manager Mr. Siddique
9 laying on a candlelit dinner at the store for local
10 residents in order to try to have what he called, quote, a
11 good rapport with them. We referred to a document which
12 was a file of dozens of residents associations' letters of
13 complaint. And the evidence was that about 1,500 sales a
14 day were take-away custom, around 50 percent of the store's
15 business, rising to 60 percent in the summer. The store
16 was providing, quote, something like 10,500 potential items
17 of environment/index.html">litter, unquote, such as bags, straws, cups and napkins,
18 et cetera.
19
20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, hold on. Was it environment/index.html">litter or waste?
21
22 MR. MORRIS: No, that is what they said. That is a direct
23 quote: Something like 10,500 potential items of environment/index.html">litter.
24
25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Oh, potential items?
26
27 MR. MORRIS: Yes. That would be the take-out bulk of items.
28 Mr. Stump, who was the current manager when he gave
29 evidence, recognised, quote, there is a lot of McDonald's
30 environment/index.html">litter, unquote, and admitted that there were, quote, times
31 when the volume of business is so great and generates so
32 much environment/index.html">litter that the store cannot effectively deal with it
33 in the course of a day.
34
35 Now, this is all presupposing that they are trying to deal
36 with it, which I have not come on to yet. He also said,
37 quote, I have seen McDonald's environment/index.html">litter in a lot of places not
38 just around my restaurant, unquote. Both managers claimed
39 that trash walks, environment/index.html">litter patrols to pick up all environment/index.html">litter
40 around the separate nearby streets were done every 30
41 minutes, approximately, and they claimed this had been done
42 since the store opened and happened at every store in the
43 country.
44
45 I can't remember if Ms. Steel ever gave evidence.... Both
46 Mr. Stump and Mr. Siddique agreed that much environment/index.html">litter ended up
47 far from the store or in local residents' basements, under
48 cars, or in bushes, et cetera, where it would not be picked
49 up by the environment/index.html">litter patrol, even if there was one. Mr. Stump
50 said that they were, quote, trying to control the
51 situation, not alleviate it a hundred percent, that would
52 not be possible.
53
54 So we say that based on the evidence of McDonald's own
55 witnesses there, who are the relevant people on the ground,
56 if you like -- well, the relevant McDonald's managerial
57 people, that the situation was out of control even if they
58 did carry out the environment/index.html">litter patrols that they said that they
59 did.
60
