Published: Monday, 26th September 2022
Oldham Council’s cabinet recently approved plans to carry on the successful Don’t Trash Oldham campaign.
Over the coming months council staff will be carrying out works to improve neighbourhoods for residents while at the same targeting those who are dumping waste and blighting our communities.
Since Don’t Trash Oldham started more than 4,000 streets and alleyways have been cleaned and an extra 284 tonnes of waste have been removed. This is on top of what council staff carry out daily.
The council has taken action against people who think – wrongly – that it is okay to leave their waste out so others can clean it up for them.
Fines – fixed penalty notices – have been handed to 381 people who thought it was okay to leave their waste out for others to clean it up for them. Another 44 people have appeared in court for environmental crimes, with a further 77 cases pending.
Our engagement teams have had more than 62,000 conversations on the doorstep with residents highlighting Don’t Trash Oldham and informing them how they can dispose of their waste properly and report dumped rubbish so our officers can investigate and act.
As part of the campaign officers have identified 38 hotspot areas where more than 60 per cent of fly-tipping incidents were reported.
Of these, 29 are residential hotspots, which over the coming year will be the focus for intensive engagement, enforcement and interventions by officers.
Tackling incidents in the remaining nine areas will be handled by a variety of measures, including newly acquired deployable CCTV cameras and joint working with social landlords.
To compliment the work focused on the hotspots, council teams will operate a ‘betterment’ programme of activity, supporting communities that are looking after their neighbourhoods.
This rolling betterment initiative will work by deploying two teams: one covering the North of the borough (Royton & Shaw, Saddleworth & Lees and East Oldham) and the second team covering the South of the borough (Failsworth & Hollinwood, Oldham West and Chadderton).
They will carry out various jobs which the council knows are important to residents, such as: grass cutting and hedge trimming; fence/railing painting; milestone markers repainted/cleaned; and gully cleaning.
Consideration, will also be given to other requests - subject to available budgets – for local improvements, including playground markings in alleys and the planting of greenery and wildflower meadows.
Councillor Amanda Chadderton, Leader of Oldham Council, said: “Don’t Trash Oldham has been a success and residents appreciate what council staff have done to clean up and improve their communities – they’ve told us so.
“People who dump rubbish and waste bring our communities down. Sadly, no council in the country can stop people from doing it but we are committed to delivering a cleaner, greener and safer borough.
“We have always been clear that the ward by ward clean ups were a one off.
“Our plans for year two of Don’t Trash Oldham build on the work we have done and the data and information we have collected over the last 12 months. We aim to carry on tackling blight with the resources that are available to us.
“We need our communities to work with us to keep the areas where they live and work clean and report people who blight them so we can take action.”
For more information on Don’t Trash Oldham – and to report environmental crimes – visit www.oldham.gov.uk/donttrasholdham