On another note - and I'm sorry if this sounds really moany - why is it that Forest Hill has nice black branded bins and we have those awful bright blue Lewisham ones? If HOP is a "town centre" can't we have nicer ones too?
There's a ?10,000 Localities Fund up for grabs each year for each ward in Lewisham. The main parade of shops in HOP are in Crofton Park ward. You could suggest to your councilors that HOP branded bins was what you wanted to see some of this money spent on.
A thread about the forthcoming ward assembly how to spend the Localities money for Crofton Park is here (banished to 'Beyond SE23' because parts of Crofton Park aren't in SE23).