Council spearheads Big Summer Clean Up

 The city council has launched an initiative to clean up city centre streets and work with residents to spruce up their neighbourhoods this summer. 

Brighton & Hove City Council’s street cleansing service Cityclean has just taken charge of new specialist equipment for cleaning chewing gum and grime from pavements and will be working alongside residents on community led ‘action days.’

Councillor Gill Mitchell, chair of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee said: “Keeping our city streets clean will always be challenging, particularly during the busy summer months, but by investing in new machinery and introducing a revised cleaning schedule, we are confident that residents and visitors should soon see a big improvement.”

In the city centre a crew of four staff begin early in the morning before the area gets too busy clearing the area of illegal fly-posters and graffiti. One of four new mechanical ‘Scarab’ street sweepers will clear the area of any litter and rubbish before a new chewing gum and grime removal machine will be used to deep clean the pavements.

The Big Summer Clean Up will also see Cityclean staff working in partnership with local communities, Action Teams and Resident Associations to clear up their neighbourhoods.

In July, residents came together to tidy up Manor Road playground in Brighton. Cityparks and Community Safety Team lent equipment and Cityclean took away 25 bags of rubbish picked up by community volunteers. Benches and railings also received a new lick of paint and Active Sussex is repairing the table tennis table in the park. Residents are now hoping to form a ‘friends of’ group to look after the park on a more regular basis.

Councillor Mitchell added: “The recent Big Beach Clean highlighted the huge amount of goodwill from residents and businesses to work together to improve the environment. We are pleased to be able to build on this success and work with residents and community groups in other parts of the city to improve their neighbourhoods.”

In August staff and residents will work together in Whitehawk to clear, weed, tidy and scrub the estate’s gutters, pavements, pedestrian passageways and roadsides. Similar projects will follow across the city.

The summer community-clear up days will be followed with a new 12-month cleaning schedule which should help ensure that standards are maintained.