Press Releases

Borough's streets getting cleaner but there's more work to do (PR 957)

Streets in the borough are becoming cleaner but Ealing Council still has a lot of work to do to match residents’ expectations, according to Council Leader Jason Stacey.

His verdict comes after the council published its latest performance figures on its street cleaning services.

The figures reveal that 81 per cent of the borough’s streets are currently at the highest ‘Grade A’ standard when they are cleaned, compared to around 59 per cent last October.

Last September, the council spent an extra £400,000 in an attempt to get graffiti cleaned off publically-owned property within 24 hours – and since then the amount of graffiti jobs removed has risen from 48% in two days to 89% in one day.

Extra investment has already been put into ensuring fly-tips are removed within 24 hours of being reported, and in January this happened in 95% of cases.

Council Leader Jason Stacey, said: “We took over the monitoring of street cleaning from our contractors ECT last September and since then we have worked with them to rapidly improve standards.

“We are about to spend an extra £1.5 million on putting more street sweepers out and about in the borough and for longer hours.

“Making our streets cleaner is one of the council’s three priorities. We know we have a long way to go before we match residents’ expectations, but I hope they will see the council is now heading in the right direction.”

Details of the latest performance figures were discussed at a meeting of the council’s cabinet, on Tuesday (27 March).

At the meeting, cabinet members also heard how the amount of garden waste recycled by residents has increased dramatically since the council made the pink garden waste sacks available for free, last October. 

In 2005/2006, 152 tonnes of garden waste was collected, but between April 2006 and February 2007, 427 tonnes were collected – an increase of 191 per cent.

Notes to editors:
The council’s other priorities are safer communities and value for money services.