A new drive aimed at helping keep streets neat and clean is helping transform communities across Swansea.
The Streetscene initiative splits the city into zones so council teams can work with communities on tasks such as litter picking, grass cutting dog fouling, graffiti, fly-tipping and pothole repairs.
The Council spends around £4m a year cleaning up litter and fly-tipping alone. But the Streetscene initiative is aimed at taking a community-focussed approach to dealing with a range of local environmental issues in one go. It’s been running for 18 months and it has been a big hit with residents.
The initiative complements the Neighbourhood Environment Action Teams (NEATs) who are also helping keep our city spic and span by cleaning up city grotspots and the new Swansea Waste Action Teams (SWATs) who are recycling furniture which would otherwise end up in landfill.
One of Streetscene’s success stories has been the joint effort between the Council and the Business Improvement District (BID) in a £30,000 improvement campaign that includes a new chewing gum destroyer in the city centre.
The new equipment brought in by the Council and BID, which represents more than 500 city centre businesses, turns chewing gum to dust. Areas targeted include Princess Way, Oxford Street and York Street.
Russell Greenslade, Chief Executive of Swansea BID, said: “The visual impact this project has been very impressive. Littering with chewing gum was an issue that was flagged-up to us in consultations with traders and shoppers. The responses we’ve had from across the city centre have been really positive.”
Carl Humphrey, Head of Streetscene at the Council, said: “Splitting the city up into smaller more manageable zones, means that teams have been able to develop a much more effective approach to what needs to be done.
“Quite often we work with local communities and organisations to identify the priorities for action.
“It’s been shown that untidy places are more likely to attract fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour. On the other side of the same coin, people are inspired to take pride in their local environment when they see areas being tidied up.
“Having dedicated teams who look after specific areas gives them the opportunity to become part of the community and helps them to understand where the problems are and how to deal with them quickly.”
Swansea Council and Mumbles Community Council have been working closely together to improve the streetscene of one of the city’s most picturesque areas.
Thanks to some extra funding from the community council, the area has its own streetscene worker who’s job it is to cleaning up grot spots in the area as part of his routine.
Helen Mitchell, chair of the community council’s highways committee said: “Having a person specifically dedicated to the local area makes a real difference because he knows the trouble spots and sorts them out before they become a real problem.
“Our residents think he’s great because they know that they’ve got someone to call on if there’s something that needs to be done.”
