War on Waste
Labour and Greens trade complaints over seafront rubbish
HUGH SULLIVAN
Earlier this month the Labour group of councillors on Hastings Borough Council delivered a formal complaint that the council’s Green administration was failing to provide adequate rubbish collection services in the town during the summer season.
After a hot weekend (12/13 July) attracted high visitor numbers, Labour leader Cllr Helen Kay described a scene of overflowing bins along the seafront and rubbish sacks left uncollected with their contents scattered by marauding seagulls. The provision of a few additional litter bins had been ineffective, she claimed, because they were not signposted or marked as available for general (as opposed to commercial) use.
“Tourism is vital to our local economy”, said Cllr Kay. “But this is the kind of thing that will make people stay away. We need better provision and better signage to keep our seafront clean… What should have been a high point for local tourism was turned into an environmental disaster.”
The Green party hit back, complaining in a Facebook post that Labour were combining “performative outrage” with “zero action” and “a refusal to work with others for the good of our town”.
A council spokesperson stated that its street cleaning service is enhanced in the summer months by the inclusion of an additional litter bin round supported by a larger HGV, additional seasonal bins, and “one or two” additional beach cleaners “depending on staff availability”. Residents and visitors are encouraged to report any problems of rubbish left scattered on streets or beaches through the My Hastings website portal.
It was admitted that the overall waste collection service has been reduced over recent years “due to increasing pressure on the budget, and that there are currently “vacancies within the team which is making it more difficult to respond to additional work requests”. However, the Foreshore Trust, which is responsible for the upkeep of beaches and seafront promenades, is funding one extra beach cleaner, now in post.
The spokesperson added: “Seagulls and wildlife getting into rubbish sacks is not a new problem. Unfortunately many of the properties in Hastings were not designed for rubbish collection as it is now carried out. This is particularly the case in areas with high numbers of houses in multiple occupation, which produce more rubbish than single homes would. In the fortnightly collection areas, we offer bins for residents to put their rubbish; and, in areas where there are weekly collections, we offer seagull-proof sacks to help contain the rubbish. Many areas have limited space for wheeled bins, and we have to consider safety–for example, seagull sacks on the seafront where it is windy could be blown into the road, which causes a hazard. Residents who have seagull sacks are reminded not to leave these out on the street all week between collections. They should be kept inside the property until collection day.
“We also ask residents not to put their rubbish out until the morning of collection to reduce the chances of seagulls and wildlife getting into the bags. The teams that collect the rubbish will clear up what they can on the day of collection, but their time is focused on collecting the rubbish. In our weekly collection areas, we try to work the street-cleaning rotas so that streets are cleaned on the day following rubbish or recycling collection to keep them as clean as possible, but this is not always possible due to staff limitations.”
The condition of the seafront last Sunday morning – now in prime summer season, though admittedly the previous Saturday afternoon had not been particularly warm or sunny–suggests that the council has raised its game. From Rock-a-Nore through to West St Leonards, rubbish bins had been emptied, there was virtually no litter blowing loose, the beached looked pristine.
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
What a mean minded negative anti-hastings article.