Sunday, April 08, 2007

Eyesore?

A tourist commented to me this morning:
"We read about the wonderful beach and came to Swanage specially. But the town is a giant dustbin with rubbish everywhere."



Posted by Anonymous to swanage view at 11:16 AM
Posted by at

39 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would that be due to the bins not being emptied or the people both locals and visitors not bothering to put their rubbish in a bin?

8/4/07 4:25 pm
Anonymous said...

Yep.

8/4/07 6:18 pm
Anonymous said...

Doesn't this happen every year? The town swells with 1000's of visitors yet rubbish collections do not expand in response to the amount generated. The result is overflowing bins, then the street becomes a bin and so on.
Before anybody starts on about responsible people taking their rubbish home with them, they do. It would be even worse if they didn't.
Increase the frequency of collections at these times and all wil be well.
It's all because the town isn't run like a business.

8/4/07 6:41 pm
Anonymous said...

If the town was run like a business, wouldnt it have gone bust by now and had a tesco built on top :)

8/4/07 8:07 pm
Anonymous said...

Presumably when the Town sells off the Caravan Park, its concessions for the ice cream and deck chairs, and sells it's remaining commercial properties such as the Fishermans Catch; then Town Clerk will be freed up to run the Town by organising such things as loos and litter like he should be doing now.

9/4/07 9:59 am
Anonymous said...

Its a constant wonder when I read the low opinion people have of the town council that they dont elect a different one.

9/4/07 3:36 pm
Anonymous said...

The Town Clerk, isn't he the man you have to speak to these days to buy a caravan up the muni?

9/4/07 3:51 pm
Anonymous said...

Most of the rubbish piled round the bins looks like takeaway food wrapping. Its no good moaning about the council. Its the chippies that should be doing something by selling their wares in returnable reusable containers and eliminating a high proportion of the rubbish at source.

9/4/07 5:02 pm
Anonymous said...

Yeah, alright, but that's all that lefty, greenism thing.

I mean, we're only a Fair Trade Town.

9/4/07 8:42 pm
Anonymous said...

just ban polystyrene packaging

9/4/07 9:38 pm
Anonymous said...

Just put more bins and / or bigger bins along the sea front, its not rocket science and surely can't cost that much. The place looks a mess at the moment with carrier bags of rubbish piled high around the current bins. Obviously from that people are prepared to bag up their rubbish & take it to the bins, but when they get to the bin there's no space.

11/4/07 11:11 am
Anonymous said...

empty more often...

11/4/07 11:15 am
Anonymous said...

Just put more bins and / or bigger bins along the sea front, its not rocket science and surely can't cost that much. sorry to say mate it is rocket science for those in charge regular emptying of bins would help but its all down to money!

11/4/07 1:27 pm
Anonymous said...

I can see it now. A bin stretching from Ocean Bay to The Mowlem. Fill the bottom with sand to mop up the runny bits and wash it out twice a day. That'd work wouldn't it?

11/4/07 9:26 pm
Anonymous said...

nahh what would work as does abroad is regular emptying and more cleaning , but its down to costs . empty at 6am 11 am 3pm 6pm 9pm and in the summer months midnight would take 2 guys no time at all

11/4/07 9:56 pm
Anonymous said...

Ok, assuming that you'll be lucky to find people who'll work for an hour, then have 2 off, then work for an hour, etc.
5:00am 'til 13:00am that's 20hrs, and two people, so
40hrs a day, 7 days a week - 280hrs a week, lets say 250.
250 * 52 = 13000hrs. For say 12 weeks we can knock off 4hrs per day - 8, for 2 employees.
8*7=56*12=672. lets say 1000.
Right, so we need 12000hrs at minimum wage - £5.52
12000*5.52=66240
£66,240. plus "on costs" at 1/3, say £22,000
£88thou.
Now, we need to train the staff, we need costs of extra bins, a van and all it's maintenance costs - if the rubbish goes into landfill then there's tax to be paid on that, if it doesn't we need extra people to sort thru' it.
Oh god, enuff.

15/4/07 6:40 pm
Anonymous said...

you can have the polite answer and say it dont cost that or you can have the blunt answer and say if the refuse collection was more efficent it would be no problem, its just hard work and organisation not an epic journey of discovery, how many bins to be emptied 20? (town center) it happens abroad why not here. and the bins dont need emptying 52 weeks a year. 12000 hrs god man where do you get that cr%p from,1 guy 42 hrs a week for 20 weeks a year does not equate to 12000 hrs.

16/4/07 12:09 am
Anonymous said...

As I was answering 9:56 - do I smell a TROLL?

16/4/07 7:43 am
Anonymous said...

Perhaps 12.09, the panacea merchant who has come out with the predicatble response that the cure for anything and every thing in the public sector is to increase efficiency could explain how the guys who empty the bins can do so more efficiently. Ferrari powered trucks perhaps?

16/4/07 2:28 pm
Anonymous said...

The answer is to be greener and not generate the rubbish to begin with. Most of it is takeaway food and drink containers.

Returnable reusable containers should be mandatory unless the customer is willing to pay a substantial premium for buggering up our town with filth by having their food wrapped in paper and plastic. We accept that as much waste as possible should be recycled and that reuse is better still. Why do we still sell food in single use containers?

16/4/07 8:20 pm
Anonymous said...

Hang on.. if you take a particular area such as the Square in Swanage, there are what, one two three takeways, add in the stone quay place between them these few places all make a FORTUNE out of flogging food but can't be arsed to spend a few quid keeping the streets clean of the papers and polystyrene trays that they sold some food in a few minutes ago. I say, the owners of these shops should take responsibility and have a continuous clean-up patrol going. Yes, it's work. Yes, it may cost.But they are winning all the way. And the more attractive swanage looks, the more punters will come back to buy their food. Win win.

16/4/07 8:30 pm
Anonymous said...

Great, that's that sorted then.

16/4/07 10:00 pm
Anonymous said...

While I agree with 8.30 the problem is that it costs the chippies etc money to get rid of rubbish. This makes adding to the amount they have to dispose of an unattractive proposition. If it bestrews the street the cost falls on the tax payers.

There is absolutely no good reason to create the rubbish in the first place. The Irish cured the problem of millions of supermarket carrier bagsblowing round the landscape by taxing them. How about a burger box tax of 50p to provide an incentive to use a less polluting way of feeding our visitors.

17/4/07 11:10 am
Anonymous said...

how about the operators just factor in a few pence from their profits to cover cleaning up

17/4/07 11:19 am
Anonymous said...

As an occasional visitor to these pages, the subject of the cleanliness of the town, the apparently satan-like chippies and the uncaring council seem to have more than their fair share of airtime. In analysing the issue here (to paraphrase) "there is too much rubbish in the town" the problem needs to be broken down:

1) Identify the various causes and assess their relative severity in impacting on the rubbish problem
2) Identify and prioritise solution(s) by assessing the cost of the solution versus the benefit it will deliver.

At this point I am pausing to consider what my consultation fee for this advice should be... oh, go on, I'm feeling generous you can have it for free this time:

Note - the Impact ratings I have given below are my best guesses based on previous posts - I am not a local so am going with instinct

Cause 1 - There are insufficient bins / too small in high footfall areas (near chippies) - Impact Medium
Cause 2 - Bin collections are too infrequent at peak times - Impact High
Cause 3 - Punters drop litter - Impact Medium
Cause 4 - Fast food packaging is too bulky - Impact Low

There may be more causes but these seem to be the most popular.

Potential solutions:
a) More frequent bin collections
b) More bins
c) Enforcement of litter dropping laws
d) Regulations on packaging

Solution (a) would seem the best in terms of actually resolving the problem on the basis that
(b) extra bins would need to be concentrated in areas where bins already exist + this is presumably not a year round problem.
(c) very difficult to Police with overall minimal impact on reducing litter, also it doesn't appear to be a great problem anyway
(d) almost impossible to enforce + the whole litter problem can't be attributed to takeaways. This is more of an environmental issue + will not have major impact on the problem in the short term.

Therefore (a) - more frequent collections seems to be the preferred solution - the question is, how much does it cost and is it worth it. I can't estimate the cost as i don't know how frequent "more frequent" is, but this needs to be calculated and considered against the "costs" of not doing it which include:
- unhealthy environment e.g. potential for waste to be blown into sea
- health hazard from waste/rotting food
- degrading town's image - visitors may not return

I'm happy to do more thorough research but that will cost.

17/4/07 12:46 pm
Anonymous said...

It's very kind of you to summarise and formalise what has already been said.

AND for free, thanks!

17/4/07 5:34 pm
Anonymous said...

It is not about chippies being satanic. The existing regime makes takeaway food cheaper for example by there not being vat on it. The rubbish produced pollutes. It produces a huge amount of landfill material. Shipping plastic boxes from China, using them once and then putting them in a hole in the ground is unsustainable. Its time for Swanage to move on and the sooner the better. Nobody has put forward a shadow of argument in favour of how we do things now, merely pointed out that is is the easy option.

17/4/07 8:48 pm
Anonymous said...

I'm sure I tried this before; WE ARE A FAIR TRADE TOWN.

Now I'm up on roof tops.

17/4/07 9:52 pm
Anonymous said...

ferrari powered trucks no thats not the point I ws making, the point is to get on and do the job not sit in the van srcating varoius parts of their bodies or rolling a fag, and yes I have seen it many times, go abroad they deal with rubbish, a lot better than us, as has been said more bins emptied more often (plus people taking some of their rubbish home), effecincy does not incurr more costs.

19/4/07 7:47 pm
Anonymous said...

Please, use a spell checker!

19/4/07 7:54 pm
Anonymous said...

Oh yes abroad. Must be that place where the guy with the shiny boots and funny walk made the trains run on time.

Let me see, we have council workers slacking, their management either condoning it or too incompetent to do anything about it and councillors to stupid to sort out this sad situation. Oh yes. Nearly forgot - the smart well informed voters who decided to put them there.

19/4/07 9:17 pm
Anonymous said...

no 917 its down to being bloody lazy thats all !

19/4/07 11:59 pm
Anonymous said...

There's just been a report on the Beeb, from Kimmeridge.

It said that beach rubbish has doubled in the last 5 years.

Amazing how we keep our Blue Flag with such lazy slackers!

20/4/07 6:54 am
Anonymous said...

it is a miracle, does jesus know about this one? some of us on here cant understand its fairly easy, one or more of the following, bigger bins more of them and more fequent emptying of them,also jet wash the square and other areas on a regular basis (or is it the oil from the motorbikes constance?)

20/4/07 9:36 am
Anonymous said...

11.59 - if the staff recruited by the town's works department are so much lazier than they should be and nothing is done about it then my remark about their managers, council members and the electorate stands.

We already have nose to tails bins in the seating area by the square and the ground surface is always disgusting with oil. Its time for the cause of the problem to be dealt with not just the symptoms. The only way forward is to reduce the amount going to landfill not to increase it. There is more to it than the out of sight our of mind mentality is willing to admit.

20/4/07 10:10 am
Anonymous said...

Has anyone heard about the initiative in other parts of the country where CCTV is monitored and litter droppers advised of the errors of their ways over a tannoy? Perhaps this could be extended to zoom in on motorbkie engines to check for oil leaks.

What about heavily armed litter wardens - dispensing justice with a bullet?

20/4/07 2:40 pm
Anonymous said...

This thread is an inspiration. Its obvious that bigger and better bins are the answer serviced by staff who have a certificate confirming that have AHDH and will ALWAYS keep moving.

This excellent principle can be extended. Why worry about people slipping on banana skins and breaking their legs. More high speed ambulances to get them to hospital. (Ferrari or a Japanese imitation).

Aircraft safety, forget it, just have lines of skips under the flight paths to catch the bits that fall off.

Suggestions please for making the future giant waste disposal establishment a tourist attraction, then we will all be happy.

20/4/07 8:50 pm
Anonymous said...

AHDH?

Always Holidaying Down Here?

Any Hope Dinners Here?

21/4/07 5:30 am
Anonymous said...

Sorry ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Must be my motor dyspraxia sending my fingers to the wrong keys.

21/4/07 11:54 am

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