Litter problem is piling up

Eric Street is just a left strewn with litter.

CLARKSFIELD has come under fire because of the amount of rubbish littering the streets.

Recent strong winds only highlighted the problem further as residents found the streets strewn with dumped bin bags and all kinds of loose trash from pizza boxes to milk bottles.

Waterhead councillor Lynne Thompson reported that Eric, Kelverlow, Goss Hall and Ronald streets were the worst affected and blames the lack of council resources for the deteriorating problem.

She said: “One man could not get his car out of his garage for rubbish and a woman had a large pile of black bags fall on her when she opened the alley gate.

“The immediate cause of the havoc was the recent high winds but bags of rubbish dumped up to two weeks before had been spilling contents, especially over the windy New-Year weekend.”

But the councillor went on to praise the response of the council’s Street Scene team, who got a clean-up operation under way at once.

She added: “Residents have told me in recent months that their street-cleaning team has been battling hard to keep up standards with reduced numbers.

“The highly-valued local handyman was not replaced when he retired and another is trying to keep two patches clean — they are struggling to keep litter bins emptied and dumped rubbish takes longer to get removed.

“Environmental inspectors are also making huge efforts to tackle the irresponsible minority who dump bags in the street, but they are stretched too.

“Other areas of the borough, where conditions are not so cramped, are not getting in this state.”

The council’s performance statistics for the period April-September, 2011, showed two indicators of environmental cleanliness graded well below target. Councillor Jean Stretton said: “The litter problem on that day was obviously a result of the very high winds experienced overnight — plus the additional recyclables that had been left out by residents for collection at the end of the holiday period. But we have seen a slight increase in litter in certain hotspots of the borough which tend to be those with dense residential properties for obvious reasons.”