Richard Baum

The dustbin-shaped spectre of town-centre grot has raised its head again this weekend in three separate emails I’ve received from residents drowning in a sea of discarded litter.

Last year local Lib Dem Councillors launched a high-profile and successful campaign for a “deep-clean” of the Village centre, using high pressure water jets to get rid of grime. We also secured commitment for extra cleaning on weekends to get rid of the litter. Unfortunately the scourge of dirt is making a re-appearance, with particular grot-spots near to the Fairfax pub and on a couple of the side-streets off Bury New Road.

This is hugely frustrating, and the problem won’t be solved properly until we get real commitment not just from the Council, but from businesses and local people as well.

The Council need to be a lot more rigorous in their cleaning. Residents tell me that the promised twice daily sweeping of the Village doesn’t happen as regularly as it should. Despite Council promises of an information board showing where and when the last and next cleaning session will take place, no such board has yet appeared. It is difficult to know what to do beyond continually shouting at them to provide it as promised, other than kidnap a street cleaner and hold him to ransom (let’s not do that…) until the Council learn to do more than give us empty promises. The Council should also up its enforcement now, in partnership with the Police, so that people chucking litter about like confetti at a wedding know that they can’t get away with it.

Local businesses have a role to play too. So often I see trade waste pile up outside shops, in loading bays and outside big bins. This isn’t on and needs clamping down on. If businesses need more bins, they should ask me and I’ll get them. If they need recycling help, let’s get together and sort it out. Let’s not just dump rubbish everywhere and have it blow about the street like tumbleweed.

This is particularly acute for the licensed businesses and takeaways in the area. It is extremely annoying to drive through the Village on a Saturday morning and see hundreds of beer bottles, food wrappers and cigarette ends. These businesses should provide more bins outside their premises, offer to take in rubbish when it’s generated, and work with us and the Council to sort the problem out.

And I appeal to the people of Prestwich too. We are to blame for the litter problem as much as anyone. So often I see local people throwing litter on the floor, not using the bins, treating the street like a dumping ground. The behaviour goes unchallenged, unsupervised and unstopped. And our communities and streets suffer as a result. I appeal to everyone locally to remember the effect that just a single piece of dropped litter has in adding to the growing problems locally.

I have been talking to the Council about possible solutions, but of course the only way we can truly eradicate the litter problem in Prestwich is through joint working locally between businesses, the police, the Council and ourselves. And that’s what we’ll keep trying to do.

Rick