Lazy takeaway customers to blame for litter

Published in Weston & Worle News on Thu 9th Mar 2006

A councillor has blamed lazy people who dump their takeaway rubbish in the street for adding to the district's litter problem. The comments came at a meeting of North Somerset Council executive on Tuesday, when members approved new contracts for street, toilet and beach cleaning.

The total cost came to £1,696,730, of which £1,221,320 is for streets, £297,250 for toilets and £178,160 for beaches.

Around £35,000 will be spent on services such as chewing gum removal.

A report to the executive said the cost of keeping North Somerset clean could rise by as much as a quarter in the next year, so officials will investigate other prices in the market place to try to minimise the cost to the taxpayer.

Cllr John Crockford-Hawley said: "We know people expect a much higher standard of cleaning but we are told the cost will rise by 25 per cent.

"We have to meet that challenge, that's the problem that's going to face us.

"People do complain about the amount of chewing gum on the street - we have new machinery that will hopefully deal with that.

"But we also need to concentrate on an educational approach, we are turning a blind eye to the amount of litter created by people being anti-social.

"I'm appalled when I see first thing in the morning little rectangles of rubbish from takeaways.

"They come from lazy people who open their car doors late at night and dump their Kentucky Fried Chicken out on to the street."

Cllr Mike Bell said: "We also need to appeal to the business community - they may benefit from the trade but can contribute either directly or indirectly to the litter on our streets."