Keep Ashford Tidy Campaign
Litter – it’s your money you’re throwing away
It costs Ashford Borough Council around £1
million a year to keep the borough’s streets clean and everyone
living in the borough is picking up the bill through the Council
Tax.
Last year we collected a massive 32,000 refuse
sacks of litter weighing in at a staggering 1,400 tonnes from
across the borough. Stacked on top of each other these sacks
would be twice the height of Mount Everest!
Anti-Litter Campaign
To try and reduce the amount of litter dumped
on our streets and make Ashford a better place to live, work and
play we launched our Keep Ashford Tidy Campaign on April 1.
During April and May we will be working with
the local radio and press, local businesses and schools to:
- To improve the cleanliness of the borough.
- To raise awareness of the costs and consequences of litter,
graffiti, dog fouling, fly tipping and abandoned vehicles across
the borough.
- To reduce the amount of litter, graffiti, dog fouling, fly
tipping and abandoned vehicles across the borough.
Litter problem set to cost even more
More and more litter is being thrown on our
streets every year and the cost of keeping our borough clean is
spiraling.
This is set to get even worse when hundreds
more streets on recent housing developments are adopted by the
council.
At present the responsibility for litter
clearing on estates such as Orchard Heights, Chartfields, Knights
Park, Goat Lees, South Willesborough, Repton Park, parts of
Godinton Park and the newer homes on Park Farm still lies with the
developers. But at some point in the future these too will be have
to be cleaned by us.
So where does all the litter come from?
The ever-increasing amount of litter on our
streets is not something peculiar to Ashford. According to
ENCAMS, who run the Keep Britain
Tidy campaign, litter is on the increase across the whole of the
UK. Too much packaging and a general lack of pride in our
surroundings are all contributing factors. The increase in eating
on the go is also blamed.
We are asking local shops, supermarkets,
fast food outlets and petrol stations to support the campaign by
placing campaign posters on their premises and encouraging
customers to use a bin or take their litter home.
Local senior schools are also being encouraged
to get on board with a special poster campaign aimed at
teenagers.
It’s not just litter that makes our
borough unsightly and costs the council a packet to clean
up!
Our campaign also aims to reduce the
amount of fly-tipping, graffiti and abandoned vehicles across the
borough.
You can help the council tackle these problems
by reporting incidents you spot when you are out and about.
You can report online or ring 01233
331111.
Litter Facts
- 90% of all litter found in our countryside and villages has
been thrown from a vehicle
- 600 sacks of litter are collected from the borough’s streets
every day
- 100 sacks are collected from Tenterden each week
- 19 tonnes of litter is collected from Ashford High Street a
year
What the council could spend the money on instead
£1 million could pay for:
- 3 youth centres complete with IT, indoor sports and meeting
facilities
- 10 children’s play areas
- 100 multi-use games areas
- 200 teen shelters (covered areas where youngsters can meet and
chat)
Litter Bin Facts
- We empty around 800 litter bins across the borough
- The average litter bin costs around £200
- Last year we bought 80 more litter bins
Find out more about street cleaning, litter, abandoned vehicles, flytipping and graffiti.
This webpage was updated on
7/3/2008