The expression "why have a dog and bark yourself" comes to mind. We all pay council tax so that Southwark provide services like leaf clearing and street sweeping. Whilst it's easy to do it ourselves, if it's not reported to the council they won't know there's a problem hot spot and won't assign resources to it in the future. Not very public spirited of you Spartacus! We could all ignore neighbourhood issues and leave them for the council to deal with, or with a simple act clear the leaves and prevent a bigger community problem.