Council declares war on summer litter

Community Payback placements will be working weekends in 'hot-spot areas' in an attempt to avoid scenes like the ones photographed by Daily Echo readers all this week.

The Borough Council, which has a year-round policy of clearing rubbish from all busy areas including the seafront, parks and the town centre on a daily basis has announced that it has stepped up anti-litter measures again.

It has put in additional weekend litter bin collections and installed temporary super-sized industrial bins at five town-centre locations which are being emptied twice daily. “We’ve increased street cleaning and we’re working alongside our external contractor to identity further hotspots,” said a spokesman.

The measures are in response to scenes like the one in the Lower Gardens, filmed yesterday morning by blogger Ewelina Blachut of Bournemouthinfluencer.com.

"I always go through the gardens at about 6.30pm to the beach and there is often this kind of litter around," she said, describing the picnic detritus and packing she finds. "By the time I've come back the council have cleared it up and I think they do a great job but why are people throwing litter in the first place? They should be fined."

In Throop and Muscliffe irate villagers have been posting ugly images on their Facebook page of the litter left at beauty spots near the River Stour in the Hicks Farm area. Rubbish included soiled nappies, punctured toy inflatables and picnic litter.

One villager, who asked not to be named, said she collected three bags of rubbish on Wednesday morning from beside the river which had been ‘set on fire’ by people camping overnight there.

And office workers complained about an overflowing bin in the Richmond Hill open air car-park which, said one, had become "An adventure playground for seagulls.” The bin has since been emptied.

However, the council was keen not to bash visitors who it believes have tried to do the right thing, by bagging up their litter and placing it beside bins for collection.

Service Director for Environment, Larry Austin, said: “Bournemouth is enjoying a bumper year for numbers of visitors which is very good news but that of course brings its challenges, such as managing traffic and also the rubbish that is left behind.

“We agree that there are some irresponsible individuals who drop litter or don’t take it home, but they are hugely outnumbered by responsible visitors who dispose of litter carefully, or better still make buying choices that reduce litter completely.”

“These pictures show that whoever left the litter was at least thoughtful enough to put it in a place for easy collection which we would advocate is better than leaving it strewn. However, we’d reiterate that taking your litter home and recycling it, is by far the most responsible choice.”

In order to tackle the problem at source, the council is running Leave Only Footprints, a campaign inviting beach-goers to clear up at the end of the day and put rubbish in the bins provided.

Between them Bournemouth and Poole councils have added more than 200 new bins along the 10 miles of seafront, increasing capacity by 70 percent and offering a recycling option at every location. The new bins are colour coded with clear messaging to help people identify the correct place to dispose of their waste – blue for recycling and black for general waste.