Campaign launched to Clean Up Bath and tackle city's summer litter problems

TODAY Bath.Live, alongside its sister newspaper the Bath Chronicle, launches a campaign to Clean up Bath.

The city is about to experience a massive tourist influx - yet this is the time of year that litter in the city centre can be at its worst.

As a World Heritage city that relies so heavily on tourism, we think Bath deserves better.

Tourism generates around £400 million a year in Bath and North East Somerset and employs more than 9,000 people.

According to a Travelodge report released this week, Bath ranks eighth among the top UK destinations for British travellers this year.

Meanwhile, overseas visitors are still pouring in in their thousands, with 323,000 international travellers visiting the city in 2015.

The aim of our campaign is to improve the litter issues in the city centre and the parks.

Litter has blighted parts of Bath, like Alexandra Park — A scene from Alexandra Park in Bath last year

We will search for solutions and call on everyone who can help Clean up Bath to take action.

We will be investigating how refuse collections are conducted and what efforts are being made to stop bags being ripped open by animals with rubbish being strewn across the ancient streets as consequence.

We will be particularly looking into waste generated by city centre restaurants and whether this is contributing significantly to the problem. Businesses must pay for the collection of their rubbish and can choose private firms or the council to service their properties. But many utilise the collection services offered by Bath BID (Business Improvement District) as part of the city centre levy. We will be speaking to BID about the frequency of such collections, how food waste is collected from restaurants and the biggest issues it believes are affecting the city centre.

We will be looking at how the council cleans the streets and empties bins in the city centre.

The Clean Up Bath logo

Bin provision in the parks will also be examined - we will be looking at whether there are enough, how often they are emptied and why people think it’s acceptable to just dump their rubbish on the ground next to them when they are full.

We want to educate people to take their litter home, and encourage people to pick litter up if they spot it, wherever they may be, and pop it in the nearest bin.

We will also be speaking to housing provider Curo about how waste collection from multi-occupancy properties is managed.

Environmental Services is B&NES’ third biggest expense, behind Adult Care & Health, and Children’s Services. The 2018/19 budget was £17,511,000.

According to council reports, it takes approximately four days to respond to reports of overflowing bins and 10 days to respond to ‘excessive litter’. We will be looking into that in more detail.

The council recently appointed contractor 3GS to conduct patrols across the city and wider district to clamp down on litter. We will be finding out how effective the company has been so far, how it operates and will be hoping to join them on patrol.

We will be looking at the litter problems in the city waterways and the issue of seagulls.

We will also be looking at how waste is dealt with in other cities.

The city’s schools and universities will be asked to get involved and we hope to organise a big litter pick to raise awareness of the issue as summer reaches its peak.

But most importantly - we want your views.

What are your thoughts on the problems, the causes and what should or could be done to improve the situation? Send us your pictures of litter and your views to emma.slee@reachplc.com.