Residents are praising Dartford Borough Council’s new street cleansing barrows and the ‘splendid’ hard working crews who are helping to keep streets clean across the borough.
The Council has worked with waste contractor Urbaser to bring back traditional 'hands-on’ street cleaning that many might have thought was a thing of the past. Crews are using carts and brooms to tackle litter in roads around the Borough and it’s clear that residents couldn’t be more pleased.
Council Leader Jeremy Kite says that the new crews started work some time ago and the council began to notice local social media users commenting about them.
He said: “People seemed a little surprised to see them at first but we noticed more and more posts on social media and it was all very favourable. Residents seem genuinely delighted to see them and got in touch to praise their work.
“Traditional street cleaning barrows used to be a regular sight on local streets but over time many councils stopped using them. We decided to bring them back because although modern sweeping vehicles may be faster, our great people do a much better job armed with a barrow and a broom. They can get to places that machines can’t reach and deal with the very modern problem of cleaning between parked cars. These great people work incredibly hard and it’s lovely that residents are taking the time to tell them, and us, how much they appreciate them.”
The barrows are initially focussing on some of Dartford’s urban neighbourhoods where litter is a real problem but the Council wants to deploy them on a regular basis to more areas across the borough.
Cllr Kite added that a word of thanks and appreciation to the crews can make all the difference: “These hard working men and women are out there rain or shine to keep our streets clean and I thank for them for the brilliant job they do. There are lots of compliments online and our waste team have had great feedback too with one resident getting in touch just to say the work the barrow beats team are doing is ‘splendid’.”