Daily fight to keep Furness streets clean
Last updated at 15:01, Friday, 20 April 2012
THE battle to rid Furness’ streets of dog muck is a 365-day-a-year ordeal.
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Barrow Borough Council contractors Biffa patrol and clean the streets of the borough every day of the year.
From Barrow town centre, to the streets of Dalton and Askam, they are forced to clean up after irresponsible dog owners.
But what about the team back in the town hall?Alan Barker, the Barrow Borough Council Streetcare manager, heads up a five-strong team which is responsible for overseeing the tidy-up operation.
Based in the town hall, Mr Barker and his team do their best to keep the borough clean.
As well as investigating any cleansing issues, from fly-tipping to dog fouling, the Streetcare team carry out dog poo patrols to try and catch the irresponsible dog owners who fail to clean up after their animals.
The hectic day-to-day running of the department can be quite a challenge, with a huge chunk of the day taken up with dog fouling.
Mr Barker said: “The reports of dog fouling are constant. At least 20 per cent of our work is taken up with dog fouling complaints for the whole team.
“Most of the time it is collating information and then acting on it.
“We cannot emphasise enough: the more information the public can give us, type of dog, time of incident, route taken etc, the better we can do.”
Before attending to residents’ complaints, Mr Barker has to take care of his morning calls.
He said: “Once we’ve come in of a morning and checked any messages, the first thing we do is check with our two main contractors, Biffa and Continental Landscapes, to see that they have the man power and machinery to carry out their jobs for the day.”
The town centre ‘square’ of Abbey Road, Rawlinson Street, Ramsden Street and Hindpool Road is cleaned every day of the year, including Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, by Biffa, before 8am. And every other road in the borough is cleaned at least once a week.
Street cleaning services include dog poo removal.
Any hot spots the contractors find are relayed back to the town hall team, and, vice versa, any residents’ dog fouling complaints are passed back to the contractors from the Streetcare team.
Once Mr Barker is satisfied the contractors are doing as they should, he begins dealing with any problems reported to them by the public, which averages 20 a day.
The team, which includes Peter Buckley, Barry Brookes, Nick Christofides, Scott Quinn and Mr Barker, split any jobs between them and begin investigating and tackling any problems.
The Streetcare team juggle a host of responsibilities, as well as dog fouling. They deal with refuse, recycling, street sweeping, grounds maintenance, enforcement, public conveniences and weed spraying.
First published at 13:19, Thursday, 05 April 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
Well said Kate, never any mention of the atrocious levels of human litter left by morons who don't know how to use a bin.
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Lets see if the mail will actually publish this....
What about doing something about the cats that decide they are going to use my garden as a toilet? Surely I can't be the only annoyed gardener out there?I have a pocket full of bags when I take my dog out and I actually pick up after her and then put the bag in the bin. I fully support the clean the streets campaign and i loathe these mindless oiks who seemingly do not have the mental capacity to own an animal. But, I really have to wonder why is it not also socially unacceptable for me to have to dig something out of my flower bed that smells somewhere between faeces and vomit that an animal belonging to one of my so called 'neighbour's has deposited there for me?If I were to take my dog to the toilet on their lawn they would be the first to complain.So come on mail do us all a favour and get rid of cat muck while you are at it!Posted by Chris on 17 April 2012 at 19:26