Page 18 - link magazine

Street cleaners treated as
invisible men

Litter in some parts of West children throw down sweet Green
Swindon is a grim eyesore and it wrappers right in front of the
seems fair game to add sweet cleaners and when its pointed out
papers, crisp wrappers, cans and to them, the insults that come SH o
bottles to the collection. Some back are unbelievable." CAN COUNT
partsare filthy withthedroppings The type of garbage the Saving Cans can Save Lives
of careless adults and children. cleansing team have to remove is
The big question is, who is enormous and very unpleasant.
responsible for clearing all the Gordon Ponting, one of the team Children at some of West
litter and rubbish up? Most leaders, described what they have Swindon's primary schools have
householders in the area keep the to handle. "Apart from ordinary been busily collecting aluminium
area outside their front door neat litter like sweet papers and fish cans in aid of an appeal by the
and tidy, and through the rates to and chip wrappers left on the BBC TV Blue Peter Programme
the local council, they also pay pavement, we pickup bundles of for 10 million of them.
for the public areas to be kept free newspapers, estate agents In the the eight weeks since the
litter free. But like all public signs, bags of cat litter, syringes, appeal was launched Toothill and
services, there is a cost to be met glass, Christmas trees. Salt Way report that around 200
and each hour spent cleaning up "Sometimes we find bags of have been brought in at each
has to be accounted for. rubbish which havebeenbrought school. At Shaw Ridge Primary,
five pupils have organised a
collection of about 1,000 cans and
at Brookfield School in Shaw, an
impressive total of over 2,000 has
been brought in. At Freshbrook's
Windmill Hill School, an
astronomic 3,000 cans have been
collected. Each has been collected,
crushed and delivered to Tesco's Youngsters at Brookfield School with
in Swindon, or sent direct to Blue theircan collection. FromLeft,Barry
Peter. Holder, Emma Crump (kneeling),
The proceeds from re-cycling Sarah Stevens, Cohn Defty, Jenny
the cans will be used to buy Edwards
equipment for sixteen Special good cause - if they haven't been
Care Baby Units in hospitals thrown out. Each can is worth
around Britain. about 2p. Take them to Tesco's or
All the cans used during the send them to the Blue Peter Baby
Christmas and New Year Life Appeal, FREEPOST,
revelries could raise money for a Swansea SA88 113P.

Three people who should get more recognition, from the left, Gordon
Ponting, Andrew Boguszewicz and Jim Comley

Two street cleansing teams in from other parts of town and
from Thamesdown Council's dumped; we know because of the
Direct Labour Organisation envelopes left inside.
operate in West Swindon and "I've been sworn at a lot and
they are to be seen dressed in threatened a few times because if
bright orange work suits picking I see people dropping litter or I
up garbage near their yellow know who has put out a bag with
electric pick-up truck. glass in it, I speak to them."
Their duties include picking up Mick Schofield says the rate
litter and sweeping Toothill and payers are paying for the
Freshbrook Village Centres daily cleansing service twice over.
and removing rubbish on road "Some people just seem to take it
verges around West Swindon. for granted that they can dump
The garbage that is seen deep rubbish and somebody will clean
inside shrub beds is removed by it up. But when you think about
a 'grounds maintenance' team it, they are paying for their bins to
who clear out and prune the be emptied, then they are paying
bushes and hedges twice a year. for litter to be removed by street
Additionally a road edge sweeper cleansing and ground maint-
makes the rounds once a month, enance staff.
whilst gulleys are sucked clean "Each day of work is costed
every other month. and estimates are made of how
The men are seen around a long an area will take. If there is
great deal and you might expect more rubbish than usual then the
them to be appreciated for their costs go up and another area does
work. But not a bit of it. not get such a good job."
According to their supervisor If it was not for the efforts of
Mick Schofield, they are rarely the cleansing teams, there is no
thanked and quite often people doubt that West Swindon could
are rude and insulting towards be a very untidy, rubbish strewn
them. "The blokes seem to be place. Readers are invited to
invisible to people walking by. comment on how West Swindon
Sometimes parents just let their can be made more litter free.