Rubbish in the streets - reclaiming the pavements

I spoke to a resident of Islingword Street a few weeks ago, who said that in decades of living in Hanover, there had never been more rubbish in the street than now. Narrow pavements and binvelopes together with other bags piled up sometimes mean that it's impossible to walk along two abreast. On Jersey Street I saw a man with a buggy, who had to stop and move someone's binvelope out of the way to get down the pavement.

The problems have been mentioned by numerous people, and if elected we would definitely be focusing on it. The narrow streets are too small for conventional flip-top bins, which is the origin of the problem. However, they haven't got narrower over the years! So if it wasn't a problem in days gone by it must be resolvable.

We would work with CityClean and aim to come out with a street-by-street plan for clearing the rubbish and keeping the pavements clear. This would involve a number of different things including raising awareness of what residents' responsibilities are, and of what can be recycled, and making sure action is taken when rubbish is left outside on the wrong day, etc.

As the resident said to me: never mind reclaiming the streets - let's get the pavements back first!

Tracey Hill