Swiss Cottage councillor Don Williams has called out Camden Council on the state of our streets following heavy leaf-fall. “Autumn has arrived with full force and a large quantity of leaves can be seen all over the north of the Borough,” Don asked, "So can the Cabinet Member explain why his department has consistently ignored the need to rid our streets of the avalanche of leaves from our pavements on a regular basis?"
Williams pointed out that this presents a risk of falls and serious injury, especially to elderly persons, who prefer to walk from place to place. However, Camden has ignored this problem and our streets remain covered in an avalanche of leaves.
Labour's Cabinet member for Sustainability and Environment were forced to admit they were caught unprepared, claiming that due to 'the warmer autumn, leaf fall occurred later than normal'. Camden claim that their 'Leafing Plan' and schedule is flexible and that they could move resources to locations that require more attention. However, they could not say which roads were being cleaned next and when.
Labour-run Camden has given up on weekly bin collection. It looks like regular street-sweeping isn’t far behind.
This issue was raised by Cllr Don Williams at the Camden Council meeting on 20th November. The full question and reply are set out below.
QUESTION 17 (WRITTEN)
TO THE: CABINET MEMBER FOR SUSTAINABILITY AND ENVIRONMENT
BY: COUNCILLOR DON WILLIAMS
Over the last few weeks, autumn has arrived with full force and a large quantity of leaves can be seen all over the north of the borough. It presents a risk of falls and serious injury, especially to elderly persons, who prefer to walk from place to place. The administration has long trumpeted its flexible approach to cleanliness in the borough, increasing services where needed and decreasing services when there is less need. So can the Cabinet Member explain why his department has consistently ignored the need to rid our streets of the avalanche of leaves from our pavements on a regular basis?
REPLY:
Every year Environment Services and Veolia produce and agree a “Leafing Plan”. The plan is produced based on experience and information gleaned from previous years. Up to 3 additional teams are employed and they work on an area basis, prioritising locations of greatest need. This is in addition to all other Street Cleansing employees who clean leaves as part of their daily duties. A leaf cleaning schedule is compiled every Thursday for the following week with Council Officers and Veolia managers monitoring the service and deploying additional resources if required.
As leaf fall is unpredictable, and this year due to the warmer autumn leaf fall occurred later than normal, there is flexibility in the leafing schedule so it can be altered on a weekly basis to allow resources to be moved to locations that require more attention or immediate action.