Street Cleansing
The council is responsible for keeping the area clean and free of litter. Street cleaning and the standards that need to be met are governed by the Environmental Protection Act 1990. This concentrates on achieving set levels of cleanliness in specified time limits rather than enforcing rigid schedules.
Welwyn Hatfield Council has a legal duty to sweep the streets and remove litter from land for which it is responsible, for example the streets, pedestrianised areas and parks. The council does not adhere to a strict cleaning schedule, but cleans the streets depending on certain standards. Also the borough's roads are divided into zones, depending on the volume of traffic/people using them each day. The more frequently the road is used, the more litter will accumulate and therefore the more often it will be litter picked/swept. Last year (2006/07) we collected almost 5,500 tonnes of street sweepings, litter and fly tips.
Generally speaking, town centres and shopping parades are visited daily, while the remainder of the borough is swept on 13 week cycle.
Please note:
- Fresh leaf fall is managed separately. During the Autumn/Winter when leaf clearance takes place, we may divert from the 13 week schedule in order to focus our resources on this project.
- Detritus (the black mush that collects in gullies and at the side of the road) is dealt with on the 13 week cycle.
- Obstacles such as parked vehicles, shop displays and hoardings etc, can block the access of our machines and therefore may impact on the thoroughness of the sweeping.
- Clearance of litter on private land is the responsibility of the landowner. For example schools are legally responsible for clearing the litter from their own grounds.
- For cleansing issues which pose a danger to to the health and safety of the public, please report these to Hertfordshire County Council who have a duty to keep the highways (which include the road, pavement and lay-bys) clear of hazards.
However, if the visual appearance of a public area should deteriorate to an unacceptable level between cleans, it will be cleaned up within a certain time, as laid down in the Litter Code of Practice under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Encams on behalf of Defra have produced a set of grades against which various levels of litter can be judged. The zone that that road belongs to, and the litter grade awarded affects the reaction time in which the council can respond.
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| Example of Encams litter grade 1 | Example of Encams litter grade 2 |
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| Example of Encams litter grade 3 | Example of Encams litter grade 4 |
Cleaner and Greener
The council and it’s partners are attempting to improve standards year on year, in fact one of the council’s corporate promises is to make the borough cleaner and greener.
The council is currently implementing an Enforcement Policy to tackle highly visible nuisance activities such as littering, fly-posting and fly-tipping. Additionally procedures are already in place to deal with people who allow their dogs to foul in public places, and faster procedures have been introduced to deal with abandoned vehicles.
New, larger and more vandal resistant litterbins have been introduced to Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City town centres and other shopping areas. Also any vandalised or missing dog waste bins have been replaced with a new, fire proof and vandal resistant design.
Two new Hako sweepers have been introduced to clean the town and neighbourhood centres. Large Johnson Sweepers are used to sweep main roads, whilst a mid-range Johnson, and small Scmidt Sweeper are used to sweep residential streets. Our aim is to visit residential streets at least four times a year. Additionally, more street cleaners are being employed working longer hours into the evenings and at weekends.
Encams estimates that more than 100,000 trolleys go astray from supermarkets each year and it is estimated that this costs local authorities approximately £5 million per year. If you would like to report an abandoned shopping trolley you can contact the retailer to which it belongs. The more calls the retailers receive the more aware they will become of the problems they are causing. The relevant numbers for the borough are:
| Asda 01707 630800 | Marks and Spencer 01707 373757 |
| Morrisons 01707 391358 | Sainsburys 01707 334555 |
| Tesco 01707 347400 | Waitrose 01707 373400 |
If, however, you would prefer to contact the Council then please ring the contact centre. Alternatively you can use our online Abandoned Shopping Trolleys report form.
- Being tidy with your litter and chewing gum;
- Using the County's Household Waste and Recycling Centres;
- Organising trade waste collections for your business;
- Removing your dog's mess;
- Not fly-posting - it's untidy and illegal;
- Reporting your concerns to us.
With over 500 miles of road verges and over 50 square miles of open spaces in the borough it is impossible for us to know of every problem and we value information from the public alerting us to problem areas. Problem areas can be reported by filling in our online Steet Cleaning report form, telephoning 01707 357000 or by emailing contact-whc@welhat.gov.uk.