Dirty streets in Fairfield - walkabout with a resident and an officer

At last week's Neighbourhood Committee, a local resident and I found out later, a former Labour Councillor from the old Tuebrook ward (1990 - 1994) asked the committee a public question about the dirty streets in Prescot Road, Fairfield.

Mike Cockburn, our neighbourhood Environment Manager was at the meeting and he agreed with Wendy and me that he would provide an officer from his team to meet the resident, Ann, and one of us, to go on a walkabout with her so that she could point out precisely what concerns she had.

We did this on Wednesday afternoon and Ann took us on the walk she regularly takes from her home, through Newsham Park and along to the bus stop on Prescot Road. All along the route there was evidence that although the road is kept clean, the pavements are sadly neglected. There are no "men with brushes" in evidence, only the vehicles with brushes that ride up to the kerbs. The park was dirty too. We spotted at least two dozen different problem areas and the officer, Larry, took loads of photographs of detritus that concerned us.

He has promised to meet Enterprise (streets) and Glendale (parks) "on site" and go over these with them and then get back to me with the results of their discussions. As I have said before, the people of this city pay a huge sum to Enterprise and to Glendale to fulfil their contract to keep our streets and parks clean and it seems clear to me that they are much more effective in some part of the city than others.

It would appear in the case of Enterprise that where an "enhanced service" is being provided by other organisations, as is the case in some of Kensington where the Clean Team operate, Enterprise do not find it necessary to work as hard on delivering their basic duties.

Not good enough! Labour will examine the fulfillment of these contracts very closely if elected to power on May 1st. If it is possible for my own street to be kept beautifully clean then it is also possible for the streets I represent to be kept beautifully clean. Nothing less will suffice for the people of Kensington and Fairfield (or Picton either, come to that)