It should be a Clean Sweep for Ealing
Council invest 75% more to clean borough's streets
Ealing Council will spend an extra £1.5 million to keep its street sweepers out for longer and more often around the borough. The new investment will mean more streets will be cleaned every day instead of twice a week. Other streets will be upgraded from being cleaned once to twice weekly.
The areas around the borough’s rail and Tube stations will be cleaned daily in the morning and again in the afternoon, so they will be tidier when commuters arrive home.The council will also put in an extra £142,000 to recruit four more envirocrime officers to increase enforcement and catch irresponsible individuals who blight the borough by fly-tipping, dropping litter and scrawling graffiti.
Council Leader Jason Stacey said: “Once the new arrangements are up and running, residents should be able to see the difference, especially in our town centres and around our key community areas. I am pleased to be able to announce this significant additional investment as it will mean more parts of the borough will get cleaned more regularly. Residents have told us they want cleaner streets and that is why it is one of this administration’s three key priorities.”
The measures outlined above form part of the council’s budget for 2007/2008, which will be formally agreed on 6 March. The street cleaning budget for the current financial year (2006/07) is just over £2.035 million. The extra investment of £1.528 million will mean £3.563 million will be spent on street cleaning in the next financial year, which begins in April.
The council recently took over the monitoring of cleaning standards from its contractor ECT, which carries out the work. Within the next few months, residents will be able to check how well their street is being maintained online.
Councillor Stacey added: “We are putting in the extra cash but we will also all make sure it is not being wasted. ECT will be given the extra resources and expected to meet the standards set out for them.”
Angela Jullings, who has discussed particularly problematical trouble spots in Acton personally with Jason Stacey, was delighted to hear the news. She told me: "The additional investment from our Council to increase the cleaning of our streets not just in Acton but across the borough to me is confirmation that residents have been heard and the Council are now delivering, as they promised in their manifesto. This is good news for everyone and truly a step in the right direction by the Council. I look forward to hanging up my litterpick and spending more time enjoying Acton!"
February 9, 2007
