Street Cleansing

In September 2003 a new street cleansing contract commenced in North Herts.

What is street cleansing?

Street cleansing is the removal of grit, mud, litter, grease and debris and leaf fall from adopted highways. It includes the removal of litter from verges and footways alongside adopted highways and the cleansing of adopted tarmac footways that are independent of a road such as those that run through housing estates.

The Law

There is no legal requirement for a Local Authority to clean roads at any particular frequency although, as a 'duty holder' under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, we do have to ensure that roads and open spaces under our control are cleaned if they become badly littered.

It is the standard of cleanliness rather than the frequency of cleaning that is important, therefore the programmed sweeping concentrates on those areas which have most pedestrian or vehicle traffic, thereby targeting the potentially more polluted areas of the District. Through this targeting we balance resources to allow us to respond to complaints and deal with litter hotspots.   

Zoning and Grading

North Herts is divided into prescribed zone types according to the main use of the land in a particular area. Although litter is unacceptable anywhere in the District, the time that the Council or other Duty Holder has to bring a littered area to a reasonable condition varies according to its zone and the amount of litter. The Zones, Grades and response times are set out in Government’s Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse.   

Land is categorised as one of four grades according to the amount of litter that is present as follows:

• Grade A – area is free from litter
• Grade B – not much litter apart from a few small items
• Grade C – quite a lot of litter with small build-ups
• Grade D – a lot of litter with big build-ups.

The grade that is acceptable is generally either A or B. If a complaint is received about litter, the time within which we or another Duty Holder should remedy the situation and the grade that must be achieved after clearing is described in the following table.

The time given in the table below is the time within which the area has to be returned to the acceptable standard. For example, if an area of the town centre is a zone 1and it is land for which the Council is responsible and has fallen to grade D, we have 1 hour to return it to grade A.

Category Zones
Category Zones	Brief Description			Standards of Cleanliness
		A	B	C	D
	Enhanced Town Centres		1  hr
				1  hr
					1 hr
1	Other Town Centres		6 hrs
				3 hrs
					1  hr
3	Low Density Residential		2 wks	12 hrs
	(e.g. the majority of the residential areas in North Herts and the residential areas in the villages)				6 hrs
4	All Other Areas			1 week
			2 wks	1 week	60 hrs
7	District and Local Roads			2 weeks
	(to Grade A or B)				5 days

The following organisations are also ‘Duty Holders’ and have responsibility to keep their premises free from litter and to restore land under their control, which has become littered, to an acceptable standard within a certain amount of time as laid down in the Code of Practice.

• Educational establishments
• The Railway Authority
• Crown authorities
• Herts County Council

Frequency of sweeping

In order to maintain street cleansing standards to levels required Veolia have minimum sweeping frequencies as follows:

Frequency of sweeping
Street Zone	Minimum Frequency
Enhanced Area	Daily (Mon-Sun)
Zone 1	Twice Weekly (Mon-Sun)
Zone 3	Monthly ( Four weeks
Zone 4	Six Weekly
Zone 7	Thirteen Weekly, Recycling Bring Banks Daily

Contract supervision

The contractor proposes to operate integrated Refuse, Recycling and Street cleansing services with all being supported by dedicated management and supervision with a shared administration team. The offices will be staffed from 8.45 am to 5.15 pm Monday to Friday.

At all other times an emergency number will be available to the Council for contact with the contract manager/supervisor who will be able to initiate out of hours action as required.

Standards monitoring

Cleansing standards within North Herts will be monitored jointly by NHDC officers and Veolia in line with Central  Governments Best Value performance requirements (BVPI 199).

The BVPI survey is designed to provide a ‘representative’ picture of cleanliness within an authority. More importantly, the survey enables local authorities to compare their performance with national benchmarks (produced annually by Defra’s Local Environmental Quality Survey of England - LEQSE), on a ‘like-for-like’ basis.

Surveying will comprise of randomly selecting and visiting 74 locations (transects) per month and grading them in accordance with EPA standards.

For further information regarding Best Value Performance, please visit BVPI - Cleaner Safer Streets .

Additional monitoring will be carried out at specific locations in response to comments received from residents, Council Officers or Ward Councillors.

Information regarding cleansing performance will be published annually by the Council.

How do I report a cleansing problem?

If you notice a street or area that you feel requires cleansing you can report it :

• Direct to Veolia on : 0800 328 6023
• Street Cleansing also includes the removal of Graffiti. If you see any graffiti in the district, please report it to the Graffiti Reporting Line on 01462 474338.

Residents can assist in keeping the streets and environs of North Herts clean and free of litter by :

• Avoiding the dropping of litter (where available use litter bins).
• Educate family members about the importance of litter avoidance.
• Avoiding over filling refuse or recycling containers.
• Reporting poor cleansing to the contractor or Council.

If you require further information regarding cleansing in North Herts please contact Veolia on 0800 328 6023