Complaints of ‘absolutely filthy streets’ amid street cleaner cuts

A Hither Green resident has complained about “filthy” roads ahead of budget cuts that could see street cleaning reduced.  

In a public question ahead of full council on Wednesday the resident asked why the roads are no longer being swept.  

“I live in Hither Green Lane and walk each day in a large circle from my home through Lee up Lee High Road along the South Circular and back down Hither Green Lane.  

“The streets are absolutely filthy. 

“The leaves haven’t been cleared, people have taken to dumping items of furniture, on the street and there is litter everywhere, including a large number of disused face masks.  

“What is supposed to be the street cleaning schedule?” they said.  

In response, the cabinet member for environment and transport, Cllr Sophie McGeevor, said residential roads are currently “to be swept once per week”.  

“With the constraints of Covid-19 pandemic, we are constantly challenged with ensuring we can provide the correct resource to clean the streets, whilst protecting workers and the public and there will be occasions where the cleansing regime will alter, as a result,” she said.  

Lewisham Council is proposing to make budget cuts of £40 million in the next three years – nearly £900,000 of those include a review of the waste and cleansing operational model in the borough.  

In the first round of cuts, the review to “produce a new, efficient, and targeted approach”, aimed to cut the service by £330,000 the year after next.   

The cut proposal, approved by mayor and cabinet in December, means getting rid of a cleaning team – four staff members – and reducing the number of street sweepers in town centres “from 22 to one”.   

The risks, outlined by the council, include fly tips remaining on streets for longer, redundancies, and increased complaints from residents. 

In the second round of proposed cuts published in January, another £567,000 was proposed to be cut from the street cleaning budget in 2022/23 through a review.  

Under the current model, residential streets should be cleaned weekly in Lewisham.  

But, when outlining the impact and risks of the new proposals, council documents state that the frequency of sweeping on residential roads could be reduced after the review.  

“This will mean that the current beat approach would see the once per week visit for all streets change to a more graduated service with some areas seeing visits on two to three weekly basis.  

“Street sweepers blue bags and small fly tips will remain out on the streets longer.  

“With only three mobile teams to cover the whole of the borough, we will have to prioritise work more effectively and efficiently, and undertake to provide a more agile service but there would be delays and work assessed and dealt with on priority and impact. 

“There will be a number of staff affected that may have to be made redundant. All staff impacts will look to mitigation via redeployment as first route where possible. 

“There will be an increase in the number of complaints by residents, as evidenced by the 2019 pilots.  

“[There will be] increased demand on enforcement services [and] an adverse impact on the perception of the borough in terms of cleanliness, attractiveness and management of the local environment, with a build-up of litter and detritus on the streets,” the documents state.  

On the complaint, in light of the upcoming proposed cuts, Cllr McGeevor told the local democracy service that the aim of the cuts is to see if the council can deliver a more targeted approach.  

She said: “Our street cleansing teams work incredibly hard to keep Lewisham’s streets clean and this service has continued throughout the pandemic, though the frequency of the service has been impacted at times by staff absences and sickness.  

“The aim of the changes put forward in response to on-going budget pressure is to see if we can use modern methods to deliver a more targeted and evidence-based approach to street cleansing.  

“Work to assess what we can do to achieve this is about to start and this will include additional measures such as an enhanced environmental enforcement, to deal with issues such as dog fouling and fly-tipping.”