One person has seen some “filthy” scenes across Liverpool, which recently announced it would introduce a new private litter patrol set to monitor the city’s streets
A resident found their city to be “unrecognisable” during their eye-opening visit.
The citizen expressed their frustration at the “filthy” scenes they regularly encounter across Liverpool. They backed the city’s move to introduce a new private litter patrol set to monitor the streets.
But the resident – and several others – blasted the behaviour of litter louts who, they say, leave mess to fester instead of putting rubbish in bins. Even some of those are overflowing across Liverpool, the local added.
Under the username Justsayinitlikeitis, they said: “The city is now unrecognisable and filthy. Bins overflowing, recycling blowing all over the place from bins with no lids.” They echo the thoughts of others across the city, so much so the new initiative has been created to finally tackle culprits through fines and enforcement measures.
Liverpool City Council is intensifying its efforts to combat littering, dog fouling, and fly-tipping by seeking an external partner to provide additional enforcement.
But some residents say the problem is not exclusive to the Merseyside settlement – and it reflects a worrying culture across the UK. One Liverpool Echo reader said: “Go into any mainland European city and they are spotless. That’s because people take pride and also the cities are cleaned and washed daily. Paris has a patrol of dog poop cleaning buggies to ensure no mess is walked into, here we paint a line around the mess after it’s cleaned away.”
Another posted: “Haven’t we been here before? And it failed miserably people trying to fine you for littering.” A further reader stated: “About time too! I would start these fines at around £1,000 for the first offence, doubling every time. No excuse for laziness.”
Potential contractors were interviewed by Labour-controlled Liverpool City Council in December, with a contract for the service expected to be awarded in March. The selected supplier will begin work this summer.
But it comes at a time when several large councils elsewhere in the UK are cutting back on contracts – because they face crippling outgoings. Birmingham City Council, for instance, was the first to declare itself bankrupt in 2021 and its future remains bleak.
However, speaking about Liverpool’s latest plan, Councillor Laura Robertson-Collins, cabinet member for communities, neighbourhoods and streetscene said: “Fly-tipping is an ugly and hazardous act. Liverpool is a fantastic city that we should all be proud to live in, but it’s clear that a small minority has no respect for our streets.
“In the past year, we’ve cleared over 20,000 instances of illegally dumped waste, many of which have been reported by concerned residents.
“We know that fly-tipping is unsightly and can harm the environment, so a lot of time and resources are committed to cleaning it up quickly. The time and money we’ve spent on doing this could have been used on improving our City rather than having to fix a problem that selfish people have created.
“Residents have said to us that this is a major issue, and we agree. We’ve already taken significant steps internally by hiring more enforcement officers and the next step is to expand our operations through an external partner.
“Our procurement strategy is focused on finding the best possible partner to achieve our aims of tackling fly-tipping, littering and dog-fouling across Liverpool.”