Councils told to clean up their act or face action

IT IS 80 pages long, the result of a wide consultation and the latest weapon in the Scottish Executive's arsenal to clean up the nation's litter-strewn streets.

The conclusion reached by the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse, published yesterday? Dirty streets require more attention than clean streets. As the report states in its introduction: "Expressed in its simplest terms: If it isn't dirty, don't clean it."

The new code of practice, which has been issued to all of Scotland's local authorities and organisations also provides a helpful definition of what litter actually is. It is, according to the code "waste in the wrong place".

The code also states that dirt and such detritus should not be considered litter and nor should "recent leaf or blossom fall". Chewing gum which has stuck solid to the ground or, as the report explains, "adhered to hard surface areas", is also exempt.

The report states: "Chewing gum ... is not assessed for the purpose of cleansing statistics." However, it warns councils that "there are no apparent legal reasons why persons aggrieved by litter should not obtain an order ... requiring the cleaning of even hard-adhered chewing gum".

The new code also seeks to empower members of the public and explains that if their local authority is not following the code and refuses to act when contacted, they can take legal action through the sheriff court to obtain a litter abatement order, which will compel the authority or local body to take action.

Council departments of sanitation may well scoff at the code's simplistic introduction, but will be concerned at the new demands placed on them, which includes cleaning up all city centre streets found to be heavily littered within one hour.

The code, issued by the Scottish Executive, sets a clear time frame in which local authorities are expected to act in order to keep our streets clean.

The code also insists that litter plans should be created to allow members of the public to discover how frequently the street in which they live or work should be cleaned and what standard is to be expected.

Keep Scotland Beautiful, the government body that co- ordinated the report, wishes to see a move away from old council practices that focused on cleaning areas or streets by rota even if they did not require it, and instead focus on how clean an area or street is.

The report reads: "This may mean that an area which generally escapes littering will seldom need to be swept, whereas a litter blackspot will need more frequent attention."

The new code is based on four grades of cleanliness. Grade A is no litter or refuse; B is predominantly free of litter and refuse, apart from a few small items; C is consistent distribution of litter and refuse with minor accumulations and D is heavily- littered with significant accumulation.

All land types, from streets to parkland and industrial estates, will be divided into 12 categories or zones, according to land usage and the volume of traffic. Zone 1, which includes town centres, shopping centres, major transport centres, central car parks and other busy public places, requires the closest attention.

A Zone 1 area that has become heavily littered, Grade D, should be cleaned and returned to a Grade A, within an hour of the discovery, according to the code. If the area is less heavily littered, Grade C, council staff have three hours to return it to Grade A and six hours if only mildly littered, Grade B.

A survey conducted in 2002 revealed that 89 per cent of people in Scotland considered litter and dog fouling to be quite a big or a very big problem.

Cleanliness monitoring by Keep Scotland Beautiful has found that town centres have the highest percentage of pedestrian-dropped litter, with 93 per cent of sites surveyed having general litter present.

Cigarette butts and discarded packets are the most common type of litter found in 87 per cent of town centre areas, sweet wrappers and discarded confectionery bars are found in 51 per cent, drinks in 31 per cent and fast food at 10 per cent.

John Summers, the chief executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, said last night that previously the code of practice had been a well kept secret and that the public were often unaware of their rights. He said: "The idea is to give emphasis to the fact that there are standards to be met and there should be targets. The council should be responding within these time-frames. It is a code underpinned by the environmental protection act and it does have a statutory background."

An Executive spokesman said: "Following a review of the litter and fly-tipping provisions of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the Scottish Executive commissioned Keep Scotland Beautiful to review the code of practice on litter. The revised code gives guidance to bodies which have a duty to clear litter."

The never-ending battle to hold back a tide of rubbish

"NOW why did you go and do that?" inquired an elderly lady of the middle-aged man with whom she was strolling down Glassford Street, in Glasgow's City Centre. His crime? Littering.

Instead of answering, the man who had dropped the piece of paper simply shrugged his shoulder and smiled. To gaze along the pavement, past the crushed Styrofoam coffee cups, the crumpled Twix wrappers, the discarded rubber bands and old batteries, it is clear he is not alone. Picked at random from the city's A-Z, Glassford Street is a modern shopping thoroughfare, with a casino on one side and Marks & Spencer on the other. It is a clear Zone 1 under the new code of practice on litter and refuse and so deserves constant attention, yet to gauge by its appearance yesterday afternoon, it was clearly a Category C, with "consistent distribution of litter and refuse with minor accumulations".

The "minor accumulations" included around 20 coffee cups, assorted cigarette packets and crisp wrappers, wedged into what appeared to be a water mains. Yet by far the most common piece of litter was the cigarette butts, ground under heel there must have been several hundred on either side of the street, despite the appearance of at least six well-marked large green bins with top grills especially for smokers to deposit their stubs.

What is striking about a close examination of the average city street is the casualness with which the public discards crisp packets, sweet wrappers or chewing gum. At the pedestrian crossing, sitting balanced on the fence, was a plastic McDonalds soft drink container. Someone had clearly finished their last slurp and carefully set it aside, as royalty would a crystal class, for one of the city's 379 streetcleaners to pick up and clear away.

In the space of a few minutes I noted the following rubbish: five ketchup smeared chips, four Mayfair cigarette packets, a Mars and a Bounty bar wrapper, a plastic spoon, three Greggs paper bags, KP chocolate dips and assorted shrapnel, old hankies, a tomato soup container, a crushed cucumber slice, a Diet Coke can. It was a list that could go on...and on...and on.

The cleaners, who patrol city streets on motorised street sweepers like members of a geriatric bike gang, are constantly taken aback by the flagrancy of today's litterers.

As one said yesterday: "You clean a street, turn your back for a minute and somebody else has tossed something down. I caught one guy at it and said: 'c'mon mate, I've just cleaned that.' He sheepishly picked it up, but if I hadn't been there he would have left it. We might see sparkling streets some day. But not in my lifetime."