Croydon BID is increasing its street cleaning efforts in the town centre, largely because rubbish contractors Veolia and the council are not
Some parts of Croydon are being given a deep-clean – at least, those parts of the borough where traders pay extra for special treatment, as an influential business group has described parts of the town centre as having been “seriously neglected for too long”.
Croydon BID – the business improvement district – is now sending out its street cleaning team on an additional day each week, providing a three-days-a-week, nine-hour shift cleansing service.
“Our cleansing team work to a structured schedule, focusing on the areas that are most in need and used most often by members of the public,” the BID said in announcing the increased cleansing work, which is to look to deep-clean pavements and remove graffiti and gum.
In many major European cities, each street-facing trader is expected to powerwash their pavement daily
BID claims that in 2019, their cleansing team has spent 1,200 hours on additional town centre cleaning, removed more than 400 pieces of graffiti and washed more than 500 pieces of street furniture.
The BID cleansing crew is paid for out of a levy raised on larger businesses in the town centre area, and which is paid on top of their Council Tax and business rates.
This effort to spruce-up the town centre is the latest reflection on the council and its rubbish contractors Veolia, who are clearly not managing to keep up with the task in hand.
The BID press release announcing the additional cleansing work quoted Shaun Webster, their head of operations, as saying, “The cleanliness of Croydon town centre is of the utmost importance and our team is absolutely committed to delivering the added benefit of deep cleaning.
“The added investment will allow the team to make even more of a positive impact on the street scene by improving the place in which we work, live and visit.
“The work our cleaning team deliver is vital. Croydon BID is demonstrating its commitment to invest further, not only in our approach to general cleansing but the need to work with the business community in improving areas that have been seriously neglected for too long.”
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Well done, BID ! Croydon town centre is as dry as Madrid, where they wash down the footways every few days to clean and cool the main streets.
The comment made by President Obama about the use of lipstick springs to mind.
‘seriously neglected for far too long’ by who, wouldn’t that also be CroydonBID? It’s not like they are new to Croydon, they’ve been taking levy payments for 10+ years.