New teams to tackle cleaning terraced streets

8:29am Wednesday 15th November 2006

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COUNCIL chiefs are set to agree a massive shake-up of York's road cleaning service to tackle problem areas in the city's terraced streets.

The changes will see a reorganisation and renaming of the £3.2 million Street Scene service to focus on residential areas and press for prosecution of fly-tippers.

Five zones will be set up around the city, each with a dedicated team which will patrol residential areas with wheelbarrows and brushes to hand clean gutters and pavements.

Every team will have a champion who will be responsible for keeping up standards in the area. The plan comes before City of York Council's ruling executive at a meeting on Tuesday.

Deputy council leader Andrew Waller said the new structure was modelled on the current system in the city centre.

He said: "Over the last three years with York Pride we have stepped up the street cleaning around the city. This will take it to the next level.

"Generally the street cleaning has improved but there are areas where we need to give that bit more attention to. By having a champion who can call on the council's resources we can make that step change. That will make a real difference."

A pilot of the scheme will start in the west zone in December and will be reviewed at the end of January.

The report to the committee said the area - which includes Acomb, Holgate, Micklegate, Westfield, and Dringhouses and Woodthorpe wards - had been chosen because of its mix of housing.

Operations will start in the next zone by March and services for the rest for the city will be rolled out later.

Opposition Labour councillors welcomed the move but said it was long overdue.

Coun Ruth Potter, shadow executive member for neighbourhood services, said: "This is to be warmly welcomed because it is exactly the sort of thing that we have been saying York has needed for years.

"Street cleaning services in York are simply not good enough with some people receiving a massively inferior service to others despite paying the same levels of council tax.

"People deserve to know why it has taken so long to be addressed."

NICK APPLEYARD asked the people of York whether more needs to be done to clean the residential streets of York

Maureen Hearfield, 62, of Nunnery Lane, York, said: "Yes, of course it does.

"I live on an estate and it's terrible as soon as you venture off the busy roads."

Shirley Goodyear, 61, of Borough-bridge Road, York, said: "Round our way isn't too bad because everyone is quite tidy. However, by the school round the corner it is terrible. It appears to be litter dropped on a lunch-time by the schoolchildren."

Stuart Brown, 22, of Hull Road, York, said: "Yes, it does. Now that I live on Hull Road the problem is not that bad. However, when I lived in Bootham, the backstreets were awful. Many people did not have wheelie bins so their trash filled the alleys."

Jenny Hudson, 22, of Wellington Street, York, said: "It's not that bad where I am. There are regular bin collections and good recycling facilities, so I have not really noticed it to be much of a problem."