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Readers thanked for Grotty nominations
by Katie Storey22/ 4/2008
ROCHDALE’S environmental department has praised the help of Observer readers when presenting its service plan update to councillors.
The plan outlined the department’s achievements in enforcing recycling through fortnightly collections, while attracting recognition and investment for the work it does to maintain a cleaner and greener environment.
While the environmental department accepted that there was still lots of work to do, it was grateful for the help that Observer readers gave by pin-pointing grot spots across the borough.
It is now believed major improvements have been made to crack down on fly-tipping with many residents and business owners seeing the offence as socially unacceptable.
Claims that the problem increased as a direct result of an imposed £15 charge for bulk collections, which was later scrapped, have been denied.
Head of environmental management Peter Cunningham said: "It has been another successful year, with the roll out of alternate weekly collections almost complete. We’re on target to achieve 25 per cent recycling across the borough.
"We have also had a successful bid on national cycleways bringing in half a million pounds."
Mr Cunningham said he was very proud that the public could now see a ‘tangible difference’ in the cleanliness of the borough.
The environmental department has already begun working towards its 2008/09 targets, which include increasing the number of parks with green flag status from three to five, reducing the number of littered streets and lowering the council’s carbon emissions.
Mr Cunningham said: "We will continue to excel into cleaner greener environmental issues. Although we have a very small enforcement team by far per head of population, it’s very frustrating because there is only so much they can do. More enforcement officers would solve the problem, we do try to prosecute by identifying the source, but it’s very time consuming."
At present the council has come up with initiatives aimed at encouraging the public to take greater responsibility to promote a cleaner borough.
These include a recently-launched green volunteer scheme, which has given local people an opportunity to contribute to the environment by undertaking practical conservation projects, while gaining training and learning new skills.
In addition, after introducing recycling into the council Municipal Offices last October, the scheme will now be rolled out into other major council buildings showing that the council is prepared to lead by example.
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