Councillor Athena Zissimos, Ealing Liberal Democrats spokesperson for the Environment shares her thoughts on how the streets in the borough are cleaned and maintained.
“Weeds in pavements, blocked drains full of unswept leaves, accumulated litter pushed by rain water as it flows down to the now blocked drain creating a dam. Crisp packets, ice-cream and chocolate bar wrappers swept into your front garden.
“Very quietly, Ealing Labour have decided to stop deep sweeping our local streets. This used to be done four times a year but has now been reduced to twice a year, with an extra sweep for the leaves in autumn. However, if that last sweeping of leaves is ill-timed, it could mean you are living with leaves rotting down and becoming a sodden mess until April the following year! You may recall that this happened last year, it happened too early to capture the falling leaves.
“There is a hit squad of deep sweepers who can step in and perform a fourth sweep – but it is not guaranteed. This extra cleaning will only occur if enough complaints are received from residents and councillors. How many are enough?
“Ealing has become scruffy and unkempt – the streets are overgrown with weeds and strewn with litter, not to mention the increase in fly-tipping. Ealing has become a depressing place to walk around and live in.
“When I became a councillor in 2022 there was a once-a-year spring clean, which reached parts that the usual quarterly cleaning did not reach. This annual spring clean has now disappeared. Leaving a trail behind it of uncleaned banks beside bridges, odd patches of weeds on street corners somehow left out, the odd alley way or a public footpath covered with uncollected litter and all excluded from any cleaning schedule.
“Each year Ealing Labour present a budget which includes an allocation of services to be provided and has been squeezing street cleaning. At the budget presented in 2017 both Labour and Conservative councillors together voted to reduce the street sweeping service. The Liberal Democrats voted against it.
“We have persistently prioritised street sweeping and found funds to increase street cleaning and target fly-tip hot spots using local knowledge in our fully costed alternative budget amendments. It is essential to reverse this increasing trend of scruffy, overgrown and litter strewn streets and cherish our local areas.”
