I still have to pinch myself when I see our staff with their brushes and handcarts, or astride their green machines, and it's dark. For as long as I can remember you only ever saw one or two people cleaning the town streets in the afternoons, and it's long been an ambition of mine to have street cleansing crews working into the evenings, as happens in many other towns of this size.
Since July last year there has been a new trial in place whereby all of the Parish street cleansing staff are concentrated on the area within the Ring Road, while the TTS or States staff deal with the rest of the Parish. But St. Helier parishioners voted extra funding so we could increase our staffing to cover the afternoons, evenings and weekends, and what a difference it is making.
Not that we're home and dry, by any means - we still have to tackle the root of the problem and deter people from dropping litter in the first place; we need to improve the provision of litter bins, too - sometimes I pick up some litter and find I have to walk half a mile before I find a bin to put it in; we need to allocate more resources to the actual washing of pavements and precincts. But progress is definitely being made towards a cleaner St. Helier.
5 comments:
The euro bins near where I lived were always overflowing with bin bags ripped open by seagulls. It was a real mess and must have taken a while to clean up.
Another eye sore was the constant stream of litter along the roadsides. It was worse in the evenings and really bad at weekends.
I no longer live in town but I can only assume that this is much better for residents. I wish litter was not an issue in the rural areas, but sadly it is.
http://www.longwood.edu/CLEANVA/cigbuttarticles.htm
"The smoking ban has resulted in smokers having to vacate pubs and smoke outside resulting in a lot of butts on the street. Some pubs have installed containers on stands to prevent people from leaving their cigarette stubs on the ground, and now Sean Ó Neachtain is calling for such 'municipal ashtrays' to be installed outside pubs throughout the city."
n the UK,cigarettes account for over 40% of street litter.(Source:ENCAMS)
"The answer is a combination of provision (of better more convenient disposal facilities), education (communicating the damage caused by this kind of litter and making people aware of considerate disposal options) and enforcement (penalizing people who drop cigarette and other forms of litter)."
A point to ponder!
What about "dog ends" smokers just ignore bins & think they have a right to drop them anywhere.
The worst part is when they don't even extinguish them so anyone without shoes or wearing sandel type footwear could burn themselves.
How about getting the Honorary Police equally visible on the streets of town after dark?
Thank you.
Well done Simon! St Helier will soon be the cleanest ghetto in Europe.
Perhaps you can enter a competition and win a prize?
Post a Comment