Big Clean-Up crew nets 200 tonnes of rubbish (From The Bolton News)

Big Clean-Up crew nets 200 tonnes of rubbish

1:20pm Tuesday 9th February 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

MORE than 200 tonnes of rubbish has been collected from the streets of Bolton as part of the post-thaw Big Clean-Up.

That is more than double the usual 85 tonnes that is cleaned up during an average week.

Bolton Council launched the biggest ever clean-up of the borough last week, after some of the worst winter weather in decades left the streets looking shabby.

The Big Freeze led to the Big Thaw, revealing a mountain of litter on the streets and prompting the Big Clean-Up.

In the first week of the Big Clean-Up, street cleaning teams have swept 418km of roads across the borough and also cleaned up 20 large areas of graffiti.

All litter collected in the town centre is being recycled while any waste collected in the outlying communities is being sent to landfill due to the poor condition of the majority of the rubbish, which could have been in the streets for weeks during the Big Freeze.

More than 70 staff are being employed on the Big Clean-Up and they will concentrate on zones around the borough on a day-to-day basis in a similar way to how the authority deploys its bin men.

The council is also using six mechanical road cleaners to clean the roads of all grit, sand and other debris to stop it building up and becoming a flood risk.

A council spokesperson said: “So far the Big Clean-Up has been really successful — many areas have been tackled by our clean-up crews and we have received some excellent feedback from residents.

“Some of the borough’s streets are already reasonably clean, so these streets have been inspected to check that they are up to standard.

“As we go into the second and third weeks of the clean-up, we would urge Bolton’s residents to continue to support us by keeping their areas tidy and cleaning up after their dogs.”

Residents have backed the Big Clean-Up.

Ken Whowell, of the Claypool Residents Association, said it was “highly commendable”.

He added: “I cannot fault it in any way.

“It is a great idea and even though our estate is fairly clean, it is very much welcome.

“Anything that improves the appearance of the town has to be a good thing.”

andrew.greaves@ theboltonnews.co.uk