Thursday, September 18, 2008

TDC's Dirty Secret

Perusing the entries on the excellent Fix My Street website, I notice the number of complaints about street cleaning in Thanet has rocketed. Why? Because without so much as a 'by your leave' the Uranians have quietly implemented a new cleansing policy.

If you've noticed that the sweepy-uppy chap hasn't been down your way for weeks, that you're having to wade knee-deep in filth just to toddle down to the local shop, or that lawns are growing where once your kerbs were, it's because residential roads are now only swept on an irregular basis, usually at the point where someone complains that they can't back their car out of the drive due to the drift of empty tin cans, cigarette ends, barkers' nests, dirty nappies and pizza boxes that has blocked them in.

TDC now only applies its daily or weekly efforts to town centres and sea fronts. Although you won't have read about it, confirmation came at the recent Margate traders meeting with the council, who responded to complaints about the state of the town centre streets with the announcement that they now 'pull people in from other areas'. Of course, we want our public spaces to look tidy and well cared for, but surely not at the expense of the residential roads that feed into them? And when it rains, the muck presumably just washes down the nearest drain and clogs it up? All that from the people who promise on their website: 'Thanet District Council is committed to improving the look, cleanliness, vitality and safety of the the local environment.' Kuh!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Then why does TDC not bill the polluters i.e. the takeaways. The good news for litter bugs is that three take aways in the town centre have had licenses issued to open until 03:00 in the morning?

One only has to go down Ramsgate town centre after the night before, to view the aftermath of kick out time or the aptly named chuck out/throw up time.

The morning after the night before especially on a Sunday morning (after the market) is frankly disgusting.

Its very apparent that there is distinct lack of joined up thinking when it comes to rubbish but then talking of rubbish...exactly!!

Anonymous said...

Sorry to bang on about this but i still think the best way is to make each property responsible for clearing up the pavement in front of it otherwise you'll get fined, regardless of whether you put the rubbish there or not. Then people would keep a better look out for the culprits and report them. We have just had wheelie bins delivered to our road - but we are not allowed to use them for another month - they are so ugly - have yet to see if they will actually improve the rubbish strewn around situation but in the meantime they make the street look so ugly. I'm keeping mine out the back for now.

Anonymous said...

Why should we clean the streets when we pay the council to do that? If they kept the streets spotless it would discourage people from littering. And more signs on lamp posts etc spelling out the fines for litter louts would help.

But then most of the rubbish is spilt by the bin men in the first place picking up bags the seagulls have attacked.

Anonymous said...

They're at it again. At 0630 this morning a chap with a yellow TDC jacket came down our road, taking bin bags out of the bins and piling them up in the gutter. Half an hour later the bin-men arrived..but the damage had already been done. If they are going to adopt such a silly practice as piling up the bags for the seagulls to feast upon I think it is incumbent on them to provide someone to clean up the mess that results. There's no way that individual owners of properties can be held accountable for the filth that results from shoddy practices on the part of the refuse operators.

Anonymous said...

Good job creation scheme, Get the residents to drop litter, then employ people to pick it up.

Seriously, use cctv to catch the low lifes who drop the stuff, then force them to tidy up without pay, whilst wearing orange overalls with the words, i'm a low life printed on the back.

Anonymous said...

Anon 8.32.... That's the best way to treat lazy ( don't give a toss)binmen.