Your Streets

Breaking News

Your Streets: the cleanest in London!

Westminster’s streets have been hailed as the cleanest in the capital, after the city council was awarded the only 5* rating in London by the Clean Britain Awards – known as the industry standard by which all UK authorities are evaluated.

Judging is based on objective measures of cleanliness without regard to the particular challenges that each area faces. Westminster came out on top with the highest rating any council’s cleansing services can receive.

It also shows how hard some of Westminster's residents and businesses work to help keep the streets they live in, work on and visit clean and pleasant.  The Your Streets campaign encourages everyone to take responsibility for their own litter, and at the same the council makes sure we play our part and make it easy for people to continue to do the right thing.

So, THANK YOU, to our staff, residents and businesses, for helping us achieve this great result.

What is the Your Streets programme?

Westminster is a fantastic city that we can all be proud of. We want residents and businesses in Westminster to take pride in their local areas. Through the ‘Your Streets’ programme, we’re helping you to understand what the council does to keep our city streets clean and pleasant – and what you can do to help play your part, and to continue  making Your Streets in Westminster places to be proud of.

The council keeps Your Streets clean and safe through its Street Standard of service and its Clean Streets Rubbish and Recycling Programme. We work hard to make sure that Westminster is a pleasant place to live and work, all year round, and that our busy streets are well looked-after and in good condition.

Take part, start small

It’s important that the people who live and work in Westminster also do their bit in their local areas. To play your part we ask you to start small: this can be something like getting to know your local Westminster Warden so that you know who you can report a problem on your street to, making sure you put your litter in a bin, and your household waste out at the right time to keep Your Street looking clean and pleasant all year round.

Here, you can find our Your Streets top tips on how everyone can play their part, alongside the council, in keeping Westminster’s streets looking good this Autumn and throughout the yearClean streets have always been a key focus for the council, and we will continue to make sure that we fulfil our responsibilities – cleaning the streets, but also making it as easy as possible for people not to litter, sweeping and cleaning the streets every day, picking up 17,000 tonnes of litter from the streets each year, and providing on-street rubbish and recycling bins throughout the city.

"84% of people living in the city think Westminster looks good as a result of the work we do.

"

 

But it’s everyone’s responsibility to play their part:

Businesses can work with the council to help keep the streets clean and tidy; disposing of their commercial waste legally, and encouraging staff and customers to do the right thing. The New West End company works to clear Oxford Street of chewing gum – clearing 300,000 sticky lumps every year

Residents can take pride in where they live, and help maintain the high standards that the council sets for clean, tidy, safe streets at the heart of the capital.

Visitors can respect the work others do to make this a wonderful place to visit, and treat our city as if it was their own.

The majority of people already play their part: Make sure you're one of them

Do the right thing. Take responsibility for your litter and your streets.  Help keep Westminster clean and tidy.

Your Streets news - 2011-12

May Makeover in the West End

On Wednesday 11th April at 8am a battalion of butlers and chambermaids from Hyatt Regency London - The Churchill descended on Oxford Circus to launch May Makeover Month, a major new campaign from the New West End Company and Westminster City Council, to ensure Oxford Street and the West End is dazzling ahead of one of the most important summers in the UK’s modern history.

May Makeover Month coincides with the completion of vital utilities work on Oxford Street ahead of excavation for the upgrade of the Bond Street Underground station and the new Crossrail station. It comes as the West End prepares for the 25 million visitors anticipated during the summer with the Diamond Jubilee and Olympic Games both coming to the capital.

West End retailers have been set the challenge to donate 1,000 staff and a total of 60,000 staff volunteering minutes to the 60 Minute Makeover Challenge on 30th May 2012. During this one-hour spruce up of Europe’s longest high street, retailers will provide the finishing touches to Oxford Street.

By the end of May Makeover Month, the New West End Company and Westminster City Council aims to have:

• Deep-cleaned every section of pavement along Oxford Street – a total of 25,774.25 metres or around 4 football pitches
• Cleaned 1,500 metres of shop window glass
• Polished 1,500 metres of store frontage
• Given advice to 50 businesses on trade waste
• Resurfaced Oxford Street from Vere Street to James Street
• Jet washed street furniture
• Replanted five trees on the Crossrail site
• Removed Crossrail barriers from Oxford Street

NWEC's Red Cap ambassadors will be out in force throughout May Makeover Month to support West End retailers as they ensure Oxford Street is spotless. The New West End Company, representing 600 retailers on Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street, will also be campaigning to slash the number of cigarette butts carelessly littered to enhance the shopper environment.

The council's street cleaning, waste and recycling, highways, trees and Westminster Warden teams will also be continuing to work hard,as they do throughout the year and throughout the city, to keep the streets clean and safe.

Councillor Ed Argar said, ““The West End is always in the world’s shop window, but at no time more than in the next few months. With all eyes on the capital, our strong business partnerships with groups like the New West End Company will help us to make sure we keep getting it right, and keep delivering clean, safe and vibrant streets which help businesses to capitalise on the opportunities presented this summer.”

Fuel-saving rubbish trucks to save millions and double as winter gritters

Street cleaning vehicles that can double up as winter gritters have been unveiled in Westminster as part of a new fleet that will save millions of pounds.

Service standards will increase and expenses will drop as a new fleet of rubbish disposal vehicles and smaller ‘pavement patrollers’ hit the capital, complete with fuel saving packs, improved engine management, GPS systems and quieter hydraulics.

The rubbish trucks are capable of achieving large fuel savings and, in turn, getting value for money for Westminster taxpayers, as well as being good for the environment. The new fleet has 70 trucks and, with each individual round taken into account, they will save more than £300,000 a year in fuel costs.

Thanks to new technology the fleet will also go about collecting the 35million bags of waste every year – enough to fill 700 Olympic swimming pools – with fewer noise disturbances and less impact on the environment, as Co2 emissions are lower and hydraulic equipment is quieter.

Cllr Ed Argar, Westminster City Council cabinet member for city management, said:

“I want people to love their streets as much as I do, that is why we chose to put this new fleet on street just in time for Valentine’s Day.”

Total eclipse of the arch!

The council picks up 3 million bags of dropped litter every year.

On Saturday November 19th 2011, over the course of 7 hours, in partnership with Veolia and business group the New West End Company, we built a 15 cubic metre model of iconic Marble Arch, using the amount of litter dropped in one day on Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street.

The result: A total eclipse of the arch, showing just how much litter is dropped on your streets, and what a huge undertaking it is for the council to keep the city clean and tidy.

Watch the video to see how we did it.

Useful links

- What can I recycle?

- Drain cleaning schedule

- Road sweeping schedule

-       Go Green Programme