Tower Hamlets mayor sends out squad to clean up streets of East End
Only one way to spruce up Arnold Circus... good old fashioned elbow greece - Credit: Tower Hamlets council
Squads of street cleaners have been sent out to spruce up a neighbourhood near you for the New Year. A new programme to deep clean whole streets has been started in east London by Tower Hamlets Council.
The programme has kicked off with the neighbourhood around Arnold Circus on the Boundary Estate between Club Row and Shoreditch Church.
“Deep-cleaning whole neighbourhoods helps to discourage littering and dumping,” Tower Hamlets environment council member Ayas Miah said. “We hope by seriously cleaning whole areas people can be proud of the streets they live or work in.”
Parking suspensions were in place over three days around Arnold Circus before the festive holiday so the council could clean the roads and pavements.
Its waste contractor Veolia used mechanical road sweepers and jet pressure washers get rid of rubbish and grime.
Volunteers helped collect dumped rubbish while graffiti was also cleaned off—even from private property. Drains were cleared of blockage caused by fallen leaves.
Council officers visited stores to make sure shop waste was cleared up in line with trade waste contracts.
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The programme was kicked off at the prestigious Boundary Estate around Arnold Circus, the world’s first major public housing opened by Edward Prince of Wales in 1900.
But the deep cleaning doesn’t stop there. The local authority is planned to extended the clean-up across the East End in the coming weeks and months .
The aim is to encourage the public to “treat the streets as they would rooms in their own home”.
A Fly-Tip squad has also been set up by the Town Hall with powers to impose on-the-spot fines for illegal street dumping.
Tower Hamlets Mayor John Biggs said: “People are passionate about having clean streets and environment. This is the latest initiative that we’ve introduced to help make the East End cleaner.”
The Mayor has also scrapped the £15 charge households had to pay to have large or bulky waste items collected by the council, which had been introduced three years ago in a controversial move by the previous Town Hall administration.