Family cleans their ‘horrendous’ street after no help from the council

A family in Rochester decided to take matters into their own hands after Medway Council failed to clean up “horrendous” streets, a resident said.

Jenny Shaw, of Rochester Avenue, reported the problem multiple times, but “it wasn’t getting done at all”, so her children went out to pick up litter themselves.

She said the streets had not been cleaned since October.

“You could be walking up the road and have rubbish caught by the wind crashing into you. It’s just horrible. It really is,” she said.

Ms Shaw said that she had lived in the area for 17 years and the number of times she contacted the council “is running into hundreds now”.

“I was walking down to the high street in Rochester on Saturday with my children. They are both teenagers and they actually said: ‘This road is absolutely disgusting, Mum. Why is our road so disgusting?’ ” she said.

Everyone can request street cleaning on the council’s website. In the last six to eight weeks she said she had filed reports three times, but she had received no response.

According to data from Medway Council, there were 13 reports of fly tipping and street cleaning requests filed for Rochester Avenue since October. All had been passed on to the contractor.

Councillor Phil Filmer, portfolio holder for frontline services, said: “That is unusual, we don’t normally get that volume.

“If people get in touch with us with a problem, we always try and get it sorted out.”

Tom Lawrie, of Herman Terrace, took his concerns to Twitter. He said that his problem was not with the council, but people throwing litter. 

He said people chuck “everything you can think of” into the street.

“Children who are seven, eight, nine are walking past dangerous rubbish every day.

“You want to have pride in where you live. And you want everyone who lives there to be proud of where you live.

“You wonder if it’s ever going to change.”

The council’s website says it usually clears fly-tipping within 48 hours of it being reported, and that the witness might be asked to make a statement, so that legal action can be taken.

However, Tom said that not enough people are being prosecuted.

“There is no punishment if you throw rubbish on the street. Which means there’s no deterrent, they just keep throwing it,” he said.

He said that the problem got worse over Christmas, adding “it’s never been good”.

Cllr Filmer said that they had to take action over Christmas because the quantity of collection was up by 25%.

Contractor Medway Norse took over the authority’s waste collection and cleansing contract from Veolia since October.

Cllr Filmer said: “We heard nothing but praise for the new contractors that took over.

“It is an exception for us to get people complaining. We do have problems with people littering on private land, which takes us longer to get it cleared, because it’s not ours to do. 

“But as a rule, touch wood, we are usually very good.”