Bosses have agreed to spend £1m tackling fly-tipping and litter in Oldham but will end a scheme of deep cleaning all Oldham alleys and roads.
The ‘Don’t Trash Oldham’ project was launched by the council in September last year with the aim of removing fly-tipped waste and litter from all of the borough’s wards.
Since it began, staff have cleaned more than 4,000 streets and alleyways, removing 284 tonnes of waste.
It led to 381 fixed penalty notices being issued to people who had been found to have dumped rubbish, and 44 people were prosecuted for offences in court, with costs of £26,000 being awarded. There are still 77 residents awaiting legal proceedings.
However at the first annual review of the programme, members of Oldham’s cabinet agreed to end the ward by ward deep-clean approach.
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In their report, officers stated that repeating the work of last year was ‘not enough to encourage people to do the right thing’ as it was felt people would wait to dump their rubbish ahead of the publicised clean-up.
Instead bosses say they want to focus on changing people’s behaviour around fly-tipping and littering going forward.
They have agreed to deliver targeted interventions at 29 hotspots for fly-tipping, including audits of bins and environment marshals potentially serving legal notices on property owners.
Chiefs will also use mobile CCTV units that can be installed in rural locations to monitor areas known to be rife for waste dumping.
Alongside this, the council has agreed to operate a ‘betterment’ programme of activity to get communities to be responsible for their own neighbourhoods.
Street cleaning council staff would be redeployed into two teams in the north and south of the borough, carrying out works such as grass cutting and hedge trimming, gully cleaning, and sign cleaning over a four week period.
There is also the potential for options such as playground marking in alleys and planting trees and wildflower meadows.
The entire programme for the coming year and onwards has been budgeted at £1 million, with the majority – £417k – being spent on dandymen, tackling fly-tipping and the ‘betterment’ teams.
Council leader Amanda Chadderton said the Don’t Trash Oldham initiative had been ‘hugely successful’ and they wanted to ensure their work hadn’t been ‘in vain’.
“I think it’s fair to say it’s been the most positive outward facing campaign this council has ran in quite some time,” she added.
“It’s clear that we do need to push on though because this isn’t just about picking rubbish off the streets, but all the work that we’ve done now can’t be lost.
“It focuses attention on the street cleaning where it’s needed the most in targeted intervention and also delivers on making Oldham a cleaner and greener place to live.
“This is about a legacy and fostering a sense of pride. No one wants to live in a dirty town.”
Coun Shaid Mushtaq added it was not just a clean-up project, telling the meeting: “In my own ward in Hathershaw, which was a major hotspot we’ve created a Hathershaw community group on the back of this and that’s gone from strength to strength. They’ve even won an award.
“Our residents are leading the work now on the back of Don’t Trash Oldham campaign. They’ve adopted alleys.
“It wasn’t simply going, shift everything and disappear. There’s been some serious ongoing progress and it’s saved the council thousands.”
Coun Abdul Jabbar said the scheme had been a ‘magnificient success’ which had made Oldham a ‘better place’.
Coun Barbara Brownridge added: “I welcome phase two which is focusing on behaviour change because I think one of the most difficult things is where people take pride in the neighbourhood and it’s one person who doesn’t and people get really disheartened. So I think focusing on hotspots and education – because still a lot of it is ignorance in fairness.”
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