Re: Why such dirty streets
 

I watched one of those 'Life of Grime' series not long ago which was set in Scotland. The children were encouraged to make a frame especially for gum sticking and it appeared to work. No fun in just putting it on a board but using it to create a statue seemed a little different.

As for 'doggy doings' we have poo bag dispensers here. Totally free and the bags are easy enough to attach to the dog's lead. There is no excuse for leaving a mess behind and the local cops will soon stop you if you do. I couldn't for shame anyway.

(We are also required by law to carry our Topsie's pet passport with us at all times).

Street cleaners are out regularly and the rubbish taken away every night

The one thing which I really admire is that the blokes from the local prison are used as road cleaners. It's normal to see them picking up the rubbish and clearing the pathways.

Don't get me wrong, it isn't perfect, but it's a lot nicer than I've seen in England during recent years.

Re: Why such dirty streets
 

Re: Why such dirty streets
 

The Audit Commission recently rated Hyndburn as the dirtiest town in East Lancashire and 5th dirtiest in the North West of England.

Re: Why such dirty streets
 

out of interest Graham did the Audit rate each town or Hyndburn as a whole?

Re: Why such dirty streets
 

i went to cutwood in rishton yesterday with my kids which is a very nice place with a park , a resivour where you can feed the ducks and plenty of grass to play football on but...

as usual the dog dirt bins were overflowing

every bin in the park was spilling over with rubbish although some people with a brain tied up their bagged rubbish and placed it next to the bin


with this been a place where people mostly use it at the weekend wouldnt it be a good idea to have places like this , parks etc attended to at least one day during the weekend especialy when teh weather is so nice and even more peopel visit them

mind you i think i counted 3 small bins and 2 dog dirt bins for the whole park :rolleyes:

side note:

i have to go out of town with my children because the parks in accrington are so downright disgusting and i wouldnt let my dog if i had one play in any of them never mind my children :mad:

Re: Why such dirty streets
 

well as I said I was only goin by what I read, I wouldn't know, I haven't been up to blackpool yet this year.
I heard that the council never increased the bin empties per day after they stopped that bloke going round emptying them and taking it home to store in his living room. :D

Re: Why such dirty streets
 

Each town as a whole, having been assessed as having combined deposits of litter and debris according to a new report by the Audit Commission for the year 2004/5; 27% of Hyndburn Streets where marked down. Stockport was the highest at 30%. The cleanest in East Lancs was Pendle at 16%. (Ribble Valley excepted at 15%).

A 1 and 1/2 page PDF report is here for the full list and %'s;
http://www.gmb.org.uk/Shared_ASP_Fil...rtystreets.pdf

Re: Why such dirty streets
 

So who you blaming Graham?

Re: Why such dirty streets
 

The department is severely under funded after the last 3 years of cuts (described as Council Tax savings). I don't blame the staff, they are doing their best with what they have and morale is low.

160 trees need to felled in Haworth Park alone (Baxenden) because despite warnings, no monies have been put aside to manage our tree stock. Proper funding and management would have allowed for intervention of diseased stock earlier. In the 7 years of this Council no monies have ben alloated and no survey has ever taken place. Funding tree maintenance though means less dog bins emptied. Yet we can spend £5,000 (I am informed) on the viaduct roundabout to 'create the right impresion'.

Re: Why such dirty streets
 

There is nowt wrong with the viaduct roundabout...for any visitor not having been to Accy before, it does create an immeadiate and positive impact (if you are coming in from Hyndburn Rd)...its the rest of the town that is the problem.

Re: Why such dirty streets
 

I think it goes back a long way and it is tied into how the Council ended up with a £2 million black hole in one year, terrible finances, little control over budgets and huge debts (which ballooned between 1999 and 2004).

Robson Rhodes, HBC's auditors said in 1999/2000 - 2000/2001 - 2001/2002 there were poor financial arrangements (I don't know before that time - but it was Labour controlled) within the Council. Deloite Touche then got involved and the lid was lifted so to speak.

The debts cost approximately if I can remember £1.9m alone out of a £12m budget in 03. I believe last year that the figure was more than £1.9m, maybe around £2.5? out of £14m. Selling the Council house stock for £30m this year has helped the headline debt figure, but any debt savings (£900,000) have been lost to the ongoing costs of the transfer.

Re: Why such dirty streets
 

Fasinating...I ask a simple question on the responsibility for cleanliness on Hyndburns's streets and we get a reference to an auditors report, a P & L and a balance sheet.

The Financial Times newspaper is looking for people like you, Graham.

Re: Why such dirty streets
 

It wasn't a critisism of making the roundabout nice. It should be nice and we should be able to do other things and do the roundabout. However we can't. The reality is its a choice. £5,000 could, if chosen, be spent on making trees safe and getting rid of diseased tree's before it spreads, like to a 160 trees in HP. Birmingham neglected their tree stock, one fell over killing 3 people. They were fined £150,000 and received a £2m a year insurance hike and importantly, 3 people died.

Re: Why such dirty streets
 

Well its like shopping. Run up your credit card debt and you'll have less to spend each week. I hope manages to explains it better Tealeaf.

Re: Why such dirty streets