Street Cleanliness in Bath

On October 5th Councillor Charles Gerrish (Customer Services) gave a meeting of the Bath City Liaison Forum details of proposed improvements in the city’s street cleansing and
litter removal programme. These included
• An additional one-off contribution to the budget of £54,000.
• New street cleansing vehicles which should help to release staff time for street cleaning. These include 3 Brava cleansing machines aimed at clearing cigarette butts, etc, 2 new street washer/sweeper vehicles, 2 new vehicles for litter bin collection, 2 ‘walk and work’ mobile platforms and a Dimax Odormaster to combat the effects of public urination and vomiting.
• The relocation of staff and equipment to local depots to increase efficiency. Avon Street in being considered and talks are in hand with the Southgate and Podium shopping centres.
• New uniforms under private sponsorship.
• Dedicated and identifiable area teams.
• Route optimization.
• Trial in the Southgate centre of Magicote, a product that helps in the cleansing of street surfaces.
• A public education campaign.
• Improved enforcement especially against restaurants.
• A joint study with Bristol and Bath to co-ordinate approaches to the gull menace.
Residents, including TARA members, who contributed hours of their time to the work of the Task and Finish Group, set up earlier in the year by the Forum to advise the Council
on ways of improving the cleanliness of our streets, can hardly complain that no notice is being taken of their ideas and proposals. Nevertheless, with no apparent increase
in the regular city budget for street cleansing, currently about average for cities across the nation, it is hard to see how these measures on their own will meet the Forum’s
avowed aspiration and number one priority, to make Bath the cleanest city in the nation. City centre residents should remain vigilant and report litter and cleanliness
problems immediately to Council Connect 01225 394041.

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