City centre to get £40,000 boost to fight litter in response to Clean Up Bath campaign

Bath city centre is in line for a huge clean up after the council pledged £40,000 to fund extra services.

For the next six weeks, Bath & North East Somerset Council’s cleansing team will provide extended periods of high quality cleaning and washing, from early in the morning until late into the evening, including weekends.

More staff will be brought in to pick up litter, empty litter bins and wash streets.

This follows the launch of the Clean Up Bath campaign from bath.live and the Bath Chronicle, launched to help solve the litter issues in the city.

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Councillor Dave Wood, cabinet member for neighbourhood services, said: “The new council administration is taking action after listening to complaints by residents of dirty, rubbish-strewn streets and over-flowing bins in our historic city centre.

"When I took over the role of cabinet member for neighbourhoods after the local election in May I said I would address this issue that has been neglected for too long.

"I would also like to thank the Bath Chronicle for helping to highlight this issue.

“I have made weekend cleaning, bin emptying and increased street washing priorities for this cleansing drive, which will starts this week. Specialist machines will work longer hours, to improve the level of cleaning currently carried out and more staff will be on hand to ensure bins are emptied promptly in the city.

“We need to ensure that Bath is clean and inviting for residents and visitors all year round, but in these summer months when the city is busy and hot and dry extra cleaning is needed. I would like to thank the Bath Chronicle’s Clean Up Bath campaign and residents for helping draw attention to the problem.

The aim of Clean Up Bath

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

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.

“Our staff work hard to keep the streets clean, but we all need to play our part and we will continue to work to address the underlying problems that cause litter and fly-tipping across the whole of Bath and North East Somerset.

"We still urge people to help us keep Bath clean by disposing of their litter properly or taking it home and we will continue to issue fixed penalty notices where deliberate environmental crime is committed, but our team will also be working even harder to keep the city a welcoming place to be.”