Special Vacuum Cleaners Brought in to Get Rid of Cigarette ends
April 29, 2009 Posted by Katie in : Cleaning News,News,environment , add a commentScotland city centre streets have been riddled with cigarette ends since the smoking ban was introduced.
So council chiefs have brought in a new specialist vacuum cleaner to sweep fag ends up more effectively.
The ‘Green Machines’ cost around £12,000 each and are produced by Applied Sweepers, which has supplied the street vacuums to more than 30 countries worldwide.
Francis Galashan said his firm received a “noticeable increase” in orders from countries and cities shortly after they introduced smoking bans.
He added: ‘We’ve supplied the machines from Broadway to Buckingham Palace, where we have royal assent from the Queen to clean up outside the palace.’
‘In America they can be found from San Francisco to Times Square. We even had the voice of actor Tony Randall installed in one of our machines telling people to ‘Keep New York Tidy’.’
Environment leader Robert Aldridge said that there are no plans to introduce voices to Edinburgh machines yet, but suggested a few candidates.
He said: ‘I think the voice of James Bond would be particularly effective. These new machines and barrow beats will allow us to target litter hot-spots.’
‘Improvements will include a designated overnight street cleaning team in the city centre, the extra vacuum cleaning units and additional staff employed on ‘barrow beats’ in litter hot-spots.’
The city council allocates approximately £10 million per year for litter collection, litter bin emptying, street washing and other cleaning.
Councillor Aldridge added: ‘The most recent independent CIMS scores show that the city is still getting cleaner and cleaner but there will always be problem areas that we need to focus on.’
‘In the city centre there is a problem with cigarette litter.’
London Street Cleaners turned Undercover Agents
April 23, 2009 Posted by Administrator in : News , add a commentStreet Cleaners in the London borough of Harrow North West London have been given radios to help fight crime; they now join a network of shops, pubs and cafes that help the police.
The area already has 100 walkie-talkies in use; with these special radios, street cleaners will be able to contact the police if they spot anything unusual while going about their daily business.
The idea of including street cleaners in these neighbourhood watch program came from Harrow town centre team chief Sergeant Mike Windeatt, who believes they will be of great help especially in the early hours of the day when normally street cleaners start their shifts.
The Sergeant said:
“Working closely with the Harrow street cleaners has real benefits for us. They start their shifts just after dawn and see things that may be extremely valuable to police. We are issuing these radios to the supervisors and asking them to use them to report to us if, for example, they come across any suspicious packages, or any discarded property that might have been stolen, if they come across a crime scene or even if they see someone acting suspiciously.”
The radios are linked to the CCTV control room to help the police identify suspects straight away and direct units to the exact location to arrest them.
Harrow’s Council deputy leader councillor Susan Hall said:
“It is not about our cleaners suddenly becoming vigilantes but just using their experience of cleaning the streets to act as an early alarm service for town centre officers.”
Worcester City Centre Gets a Cleaning Blitz
April 9, 2009 Posted by Katie in : Cleaning News,News,environment , 1 comment so farThe leader of Worcester City Council has declared a litter blitz on a busy route into the city centre a success.
Simon Geraghty joined in the four-hour clean sweep organised by the city’s cleaning team, University of Worcester and the police.
About a dozen litter pickers swung into action backed by the city council’s cleaning machines.
A roadsweeper, pavement sweeper and a new cleaning truck fitted with an adjustable mechanical arm to tackle hard-to-reach areas were among the equipment being deployed.
University staff helped pick up litter along the route, Mr Geraghty said: ‘It’s been a real success for us. I think in areas of the city like this one where there is a parking issue it can really benefit from these litter blitzes.’
‘Because the police were able to shift the parked cars we were able to get in with the sweepers and the gully cleaners.’
He said the city council would now look at repeating the clean-up in another area of the city within the year.
He also added that the University and Police had been really good: ‘I think working with them this time has helped a great deal.’
Cleaning Scheme Set up in Edinburgh
April 1, 2009 Posted by Katie in : Cleaning News,News,environment , add a commentA team of six wardens have started operating in Edinburgh to improve the levels of cleanliness on the city’s streets.
There are plans to tackle some of the areas worst hit by graffiti and provide an instant response cleaning team for businesses as problems develop.
The cleaning teams have been set up by Essential Edinburgh, the company brought in to manage the city’s first business improvement district.
Many of the areas being targeted initially are within privately-owned land so are not the responsibility of the city council.
That can mean that litter builds up and is then blown on to the main public streets.
Operations manager at Essential Edinburgh, said: ‘It is a bit of a bugbear for the council that they can’t go in and clean these areas up because the rubbish that gathers just gets blown back on to public areas that they might have just cleaned.’
As well as removing litter, the cleaning teams are to use specialist cleaning equipment to remove graffiti and chewing gum.
Once the ‘deep cleaning’ programme of lane cleaning and graffiti removal is completed, they intend to provide an instant response team that will respond to businesses’ calls on issues such as graffiti or flyposting.
Councillor Robert Aldridge, environment leader, said: ‘We are determined to improve street cleanliness in Edinburgh and this support will help us to keep the city centre clean and attractive.’
