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14.
(e) Street Cleansing
This service attracted the attention of the Committee on many
occasions during the year due to the fact that it was only on rare
occasions that the full complement of 12 men was available for street
cleansing duties. The problem is, or appears to be, almost incapable
of solution; very few men today will undertake this task which appears
to have a stigma attached to it and is poorly paid in relation to the
arduous nature of the duties. Mechanical sweeping cannot deal with
footpaths and cannot, in a district like Chingford, with many miles of
grass verges and shrubberies, adequately deal with the weeding of
channels and footpaths.
The street cleansing service has endeavoured to do many jobs which
normally would not come within the category of 'street cleansing*, such
as the constant weeding of channels due for the large part to the
seeding of grass verges, the trimming of the base of trees, the
collection of grass cuttings after the mowing machines have done their
work, the picking up in winter time of tons of grit put down to
prevent skidding of motor vehicles and finally the picking up of loose
chippings after roads have been resurfaced. In spite of shortage of
labour and of subsidising other departments it can be said that the
streets of the Borough were kept in a reasonable condition throughout
the year.
The costly business of the picking up of litter thrown down by
thoughtless residents continues; the cost throughout the country must
be enormous and in Chingford amounts to over £12,000 per annum, or approx.
4d rate. Surely the time has come for more active use to be made of
the byelaw in force as to the Deposit of Litter to the Detriment of Public
Amenities.
A gang system of street sweeping was still used with three
24-cell Morrison Electric Trucks which continue to function satisfactorily.