It was one of the first issues I ever campaigned on, and I'm sad to say the amount of litter in Redlands, and in Reading more generally continues to be a real concern both to local residents, and ourselves.
Vast amounts of money are spent by the Council, in conjunction with local business, keeping the town centre tidy to meet government targets but the areas on the edge of towns fare less well in my view.
I would go as far as to say that it is one of the top five things that people notice about the area they live in and they look to the Council to keep streets clean. It really affects people's quality of life if they think their area looks bad. This is also the reason why graffiti is such an emotive issue.
This is why the RESCUE weekend organised by the Council and highlighted by Rob White over on his blog is such a good initiative.
One of my regular correspondents emailed me today to complain that Elmhurst Road has become a hot spot for litter connected with take away outlets, particularly at weekends.
This street is on the edge of the University campus, next to a row of shops on Christchurch Road which contain a number of take aways. A number of roads off Erleigh Road suffer from the same problems.
For several years, residents objected to the location of a kebab van nearby because of the amount of litter it generated not only on the street but in their gardens.
There is no doubt, that along with being an eyesore, ever-present litter contributes to the large numbers of rats people are having to contend with. Not nice.
I have written to officers to request a deep clean and also to see if more litter bins can be installed.
Interestingly, a new report into possible solutions to Britain's litter problem co-published by think tank Policy Exchange and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England found that simple steps such as providing more receptacles for people to throw away there rubbish make a big impact in reducing the amount of litter.
Britain lags behind other countries, such as Australia when it comes to tackling these issues. Last year the LGA campaigned to try and get the UK Labour government to do more.
Anyway, According to research done by the report authors,37% of people believe that a lack of bins justifies littering and 91% of the public believe increasing the number of available bins is the most effective way to reduce litter.
The report also has some interesting things to say about the approach taken by local authorities to tackling the problem of litter:
'Our in-depth interviews with local authority officers revealed huge variation in the application
of enforcement procedures. Some local authorities use fines very rarely and only with
persistent offenders. Others have well-trained teams who work closely with the police issuing
on-the-spot-fines as a matter of course. Interviewees generally said that effective liaison
with the Police can improve efficiency and public acceptance of enforcement.'
The Lib Dems in Reading have been actively campaigning to get the Council to use it's enforcement powers more effectively to help clean up Reading's streets and open spaces, most recently securing funding for a 'green hit squad'.
Another interesting finding from the report was:
'The amount collected from the 43,624 litter penalties issued in 2006-07 was only £1.5 million in comparison to the annual £500 million it costs to clean litter annually.32 At this rate of return litter enforcement officers would need to issue approximately 17.5 million fines a year to cover cleaning costs.'
We have asked RBC officers to speak to Reading University officials to see whether they might help part fund environmental enforcement activity around the University area of town.
Why shouldn't the University, a major local institution based in the local area take some responsibility for our neighbourhood too? I don't see why maintaining our environment should just be seen as a council problem.
This is in addition to my local campaign last year to get the Royal Berks Hospital Foundation Trust to be more proactive towards dealing with cigarette litter at public entrances to their buildings.
While I'm on the subject, failing to act as a good neighbour in relation to the local environment is something Reading Girls School could be accused of, as the saga of the fence they have refused to fix shows.
The campaign to clean up Redlands continues. Please let us know of any streets which are blighted by litter and we will do our best to get something done about it.
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