We have had three walkabouts on Framwellgate Moor Front St in the last week or so. Today I was out very early to discuss cleaning up the front street and terraced areas with one of our council officers.

The area is covered in weeds and I believe the council contractor has not been doing the job it should with weedkilling. The area is now being resprayed.

Next week the small cleaning machines should be out to clear up all the cig butts and other bits from the parking bays and pavements and in the coming weeks the side streets will be tackled too.

I have also asked that we look at replacing those bins without Cigarette ashtrays on the top of them or retrofitting. When new bigger bins were installed a year or so ago, they didn’t include ashtrays and now we have a horrendous problem with cig butts.

We have also reported various items of flytipping and rubbish and it has either already been cleaned up or shop owners have been asked to tidy up. Some of the takeaways really do need some harsh words!

A number of properties are also in an unacceptable state and we have notified various council departments about different issues of empty properties, burnt rubbish in gardens, flytipping and general untidiness.

We have asked that in some areas, the large number of bins are replaced with larger bins. I noticed on Victoria court that we have about 12 recycling bins which looks ridiculous, whereas there are four very large general waste bins which keep things far more tidy. There are similar issues on Tindale Avenue, and on South Terrace where we have partially addressed the problem.

More is planned… watch this space, but if in a few weeks time and going forward there is any flytipping, rubbish or other problems in this area please let us know. Only by us all being proactive can we clean up there area. Many residents don’t report things and the Council isn’t as proactive as we would like it to be. So if there is still rubbish around in a few weeks take a photo of any problems and email them to us.