Last autumn Brent Fightback launched a campaign to reverse street cleaning cuts. Amongst the concerns was the ending of the seasonal autumn leaf clearance. Instead, responsibility for cleaning leaves this was to be combined with normal street cleaning of litter with street sweepers now cleaning streets less regularly.
A section of the petition to the council stated:
Brent Council issued this statement:
A section of the petition to the council stated:
The impact depends a lot on conditions - dry weather results in crisp and crunchy leaves but wet conditions and frost result in slimy, slippery leaves that rot on the street. Last year conditions favoured the council but this year there has been wet weather which has produced complaints from residents and criticism from Cllr Daniel Brown at the council meeting earlier this week. In response Cllr Jim Moher seemed to imply that residents should clean up their own leaves.The ending of the seasonal leaf service will result in hazardous conditions for pedestrians as leaves rot and will open the council to compensation claims for injuries. (September 2011)
Brent Council issued this statement:
We are operating a reduced leaf clearance programme in 2012. In previous years we deployed extra, seasonal resource to clear leaves. That resource was removed this year.For a reminder of last year's campaign watch this video: (apologies for the horrible pic of me on screen - can't get rid of it!)
The onus is now firmly on street sweepers to clear leaves as they go about their normal duties.
Dealing with this extra workload is obviously more difficult, especially as litter clearance remains our firm priority.
We must reasonably expect that leaves will take longer to remove this year and full clearance will only be done over a number of weeks.
We are coming to end of the period of 'leaf fall' so things should start to improve.
LOL
ReplyDeleteI'm not really laughing of course but I just want to make it clear that I think it is a unfunny joke that the council made a statement about reducing leaf clearance.
Now I know why the entrance to the block I live in on Chalkhill Road has become a official dumping ground for fallen leaves.
I cannot help Thinking of the New Labour Slogans about Britain deserving better and things getting better only for Gordon Brown to come in and increase the Debt this Country is in and for our Democratically elected MP'S to decide to misuse the expenses System...oh and the very ones that stood up saying Britain deserved Better were also the very ones that stood up saying they would end child poverty!!!!!
and this is meant to happen in 2020.
but yet more and more it is being reported that more and more children are going to school hungry and no doubt going home starving because if their parents can barely afford to give them a decent breakfast before sending them to school
it is unlikely they will be able to provide them with a decent healthy satisfying evening meal.
I know from personal experience that the British government has consistently failed to end child poverty because in the mid 1970s when I was of primary school age I can recall several times going home and finding my mum sitting at the kitchen table crying because she had no money to buy food so I was often sent to a friend nearby to ask for a loan and I was then sent to the local chip shop and we would eat chips for dinner which of course never really left me satisfied by I couldn't complain because my parents couldn't afford anything else despite the fact that both of them were working.
my dad was a plasterer and my mum was a office cleaner which of course paid her peanuts even though it was because of women like my mum who was prepared to wake up early in the morning so that office workers could walk into a clean environment each day and yet MP'S who cheat hardworking low paid office cleaning taxpayers for example take home £65k each year and still attempt to justify resorting to crime!!!!
when I asked another low paid but hard working street sweeper recently why the streets of Brent increasingly resemble new style Dustbins?
his response was it is because the government have cut the cleaning budget so that is why the council is forced to cut its budget which is why litter and leaves are increasingly left on the streets and pavements rather than in dustbins etc.
and yet amazingly what do you know?
our Local Mp Barry Gardiner can afford to claim over £50,000 in travelling expenses and yet our local council cannot afford to clear fallen leaves and litter collection is becoming a rarity.
what does that say about the priorities of the government?
and again I ask in vain what happened to the Britain deserves better and Things can only get better optimism?
This is why I told a Labour worker to not put leaflets in my letterbox because why should Labour or any worker of a political party expect me or anyone to support and give them what they want which is our vote only for them to turn around and neglect us in return?
it's True that Rome was not built in a day but how long should it take to build a society in which we all work to support each other?
this society we live in expects us to support it but it fails to give us support in return when we most need it.
after all being told that leaf clearance is being left to street cleaners who then pile the leaves up and outside the entrances to where we live!!!
does that inspire confidence?
is that evidence of things getting better as new Labour promised in 1997?