Residents welcome plan to clean-up high street

By Joe Coughlan, Local Democracy Reporter

Residents have welcomed a plan to ‘jet wash’ their high street after saying it is so grim shoppers are turning their backs on the area.

Greenwich council said in a statement on Monday that the authority’s ‘jet-washing’ service for cleaning streets across the borough had returned after being paused for three years.

The council’s most recent budget saw £578,000 being set aside to return the service to Eltham High Street, alongside other town centres such as Greenwich and Woolwich.

The sum will also reportedly be used to enlist special teams to reduce the high levels of fly tipping in such areas.

Denise Wind, 58, said she lived in Eltham for five years while she was in her 20s, and still regularly shops in the area for a change of scenery.

The resident said the jet-washing scheme was a “very good idea”, as she has noticed the street declining over the years by getting dirtier and pavement slabs becoming loose.

Ms Wind said “I’ve noticed a lot that it used to be really clean in Eltham, but it’s gone slightly downhill.

“It’s not pleasant for other people because then it stops people from coming to Eltham.

“The noise has got worse. Even motorbikes, that’s got worse. Eltham used to be calm.”

Michael Thomas, 78, has lived in Eltham for 30 years and uses the high street three times a week.

He also welcomed the return of the council’s jet-washing service, after saying he had never seen the streets being cleaned in his time there.

He said: “It looks a mess, you go over there and there’s all chewing gum everywhere and it’s a terrible mess. We’re paying quite a lot to the council so they should get their finger out.”

Jack Scovell, 36, has sold fruit in Chequers Parade, just off Eltham High Street, for three-and-a-half years. He said trade had been “massively impacted” by shops closing over the years.

He said: “A lot of what you would call the big shops that attract people have closed down and haven’t really been replaced with anything that attracts people to come to the high street anymore. Even just the influx of people walking up and down the high street, [it’s] not as much as it was when I first came up here.”

The Greenwich Conservative Group said in a statement on July 25 that the service should never have been cut and it was pleased to see it being reintroduced.

The group said they had also proposed to extend the jet-washing service to

Labour Councillor Ann-Marie Cousins, cabinet member for community safety and enforcement for Greenwich council, said: “The return of the jet washing programme will help make our town centres much cleaner, well-maintained places. We would encourage pedestrians to help us take care of these areas, and to use bins to dispose of gum and litter.”

Greenwich Council was approached for comment, but had not responded at the time of publication.

Pictured top:  Denise Wind, 58, said she still regularly shops in Eltham High Street (Picture: Joe Coughlan)