St Paul’s Reaches Cleaning Target!
November 26, 2008 Posted by Katie in : Cleaning News, News , add a commentSt Paul’s Cathedral announced today that they have reached their £40 million target to fund the cleaning and restoration of the Cathedral.
The money has been raised purely through donations and without any support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Businesses from around the world contributed as did charitable trusts, City livery companies and more than 850 individuals.
One donor, who wanted to remain anonymous, gave £10.8million, and six donors each handed over £1 million.
Since the project started, the once-blackened exteriors of Sir Christopher Wren’s masterpiece have been cleaned and restored.
Cleaning and restoration of the north side of the Cathedral is expected to be complete in 2010.
The Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral said: ‘In today’s turbulent economic conditions, (St Paul’s) provides a place of calm, escape, rest and reflection from the maelstrom of daily City life.’
To mark reaching the target, donors will attend a celebratory Evensong.
Young Offenders to Clean up Graffiti as Part of a New Scheme
November 19, 2008 Posted by Katie in : Cleaning News, News , add a commentBuckinghamshire County Council and a youth offending team have partnered up to send young offenders who have been involved in vandalism onto the streets to clear graffiti.
The work is done as part of the youngsters time with the youth offending team, which children are referred to after being convicted in court.
Under the project, youngsters are sent out with non-toxic cleaning kits and work in small teams under close supervision.
Michael Box, a technician with Buckinghamshire County Council, came up with the idea for the project.
He said: ‘We have virtually no budget for graffiti cleaning bridges and subways, and seeing these public places covered in tags does upset members of the public.’
‘I was trying to work out how to overcome this when I had a chance conversation with a friend, who works with the young offending service in another part of the country, who spoke about having difficulty finding schemes to get the youngsters involved in.’
‘It just seemed obvious; you could solve both problems by putting them together.’
The scheme has been hailed as “exceptional” and has earnt Mr Box some personal success after he won the county council’s Innovation Achieving Top Performance award earlier in the year.
Buckinghamshire Youth Offending Service manager said: ‘Community reparation work is a fundamental tool in making sure young people who offend understand there are consequences for their behaviour, and preventing them from re offending.’
A Cleaning Job Out Of This World
Posted by Administrator in : News , add a commentSometimes, cleaning can be a boring job, right? Office Cleaning and House Cleaning are not the most exciting job in this world, but what about cleaning in the void of Space? Well that sounds like a cleaning job out of this world (literally and metaphorically). Possibly one of the most exciting cleaning jobs ever.
Yesterday, two astronauts from the international space station have started a series of spacewalks to clean a massive joint that turns one of the power-generating solar-panel wings toward the sun. This joint is 10 foot wide and has been clogged with metal shavings from grinding parts for over a year, limiting how much power the solar wing can produce.
Astronauts Heide Stefanyshyn and Stephen Bowen have at their disposal a putty knife to scrape away the metal grit, wet wipes for cleaning and a grease gun to lubricate the joint.
“We have a little cleaning and greasing to do, to see if we can make it rotate smoother,” “We’re going to try to make it come back to life.” Said one of the astronauts.
Each spacewalk will be of approximately 6.5 hours that means 6 long hours of hard cleaning in the void of space none stop.
What was the longest, hardest or the most existing cleaning job you have ever faced?
Yet Another Complaint About Hospital Cleanliness and Another Attempt to Fix it
November 13, 2008 Posted by Katie in : Cleaning News, News , add a commentHealth staff are under fire for not keeping Falkirk Royal hospital clean, resulting in a team of inspectors being brought in to ensure they do.
The inspectors will have powers to go into any hospital in Scotland to check anti-infection procedures.
There was a call for an on-site system for reporting issues which would allow problems to be dealt with directly, avoid health and safety risks, and make the overall environment more pleasing.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon is now demanding a clean up in a bid to cut infection rates.
She has told health boards they must cut cases of C.difficile by 2011 and wants to see a 30% reduction for patients over 65.
Ms Sturgeon believes one of the failings of previous anti-infection policy in hospitals was that it was too reliant on self-assessment.
And she vowed that every hospital in the country would now be subject to random inspections to check they were meeting hygiene and infection control standards.
Burnham-On-Sea Carnival Comes at a Clean Price
November 5, 2008 Posted by Katie in : Cleaning News, News, environment , add a commentSedgemoor District Council revealed this week that the cost of cleaning up Burnham-On-Sea’s town centre streets, after next Monday’s carnival will be £2,500.
A huge clean-up operation is to be carried out overnight, so that the town centre is restored to pristine condition by 7am the following morning.
A team of 20 staff will sweep and collect what has been left by the thousands of spectators. The cost for this is estimated at about £5,000 in Bridgwater, £4,800 in North Petherton and £2,500 in Burnham-On-Sea.
Council spokesperson Claire Faun said: ‘This covers staff time, vehicles, bags and the cost of disposing of all those glasses, cans and food wrappers. It usually takes about five hours in Burnham-on-Sea and a little longer if it is very windy as the rubbish blows about.’
