TWO organisers of an event in Poole said they were left “embarrassed” by the state of the area while showing visitors around.

Event Organiser for Poole Bay Rotary Club, Don Nutt, and the Secretary of Poole Old Town Conservation Group, James Mills spent the weekend voluntarily entertaining over 550 people as part of the Rotary Club’s Pirates, Castaways & Codfish event.

The pair ran a set of six guided walks for people around the vicinity, showing audiences places of historic interest in the area.

They said: “The walks were very well received; but we were embarrassed by the conditions, particularly the rubbish bins in alleys and on pavements in the area.

“Poole Museum’s frontage is littered with bins. St Clement’s Lane had a bin blocking entry and empty beer cans on the ground.

“The 'alley' by the Antelope Hotel, also had rubbish strewn across the ground, as did Key Lane and the smells from some of the bins were horrid”.

“All rights of way and the alleys are convenient for getting about on foot in Poole, they are not for rubbish storage.”

Don Nutt added that “I am really sad that we seem to be incapable of dealing with it in this historic area when so many other places find ways to do so.”

According to the organisers, in the Rotary Club of Poole Bay’s survey back in 2010 there were no bins littering alleys or paths in Old Town Poole, this has only happened in recent times.

Councillor Mark Anderson, portfolio holder for environment, cleansing and waste said: “The council is committed to making the conurbation a good place to live and wants to work with residents, local businesses and organisations to make local areas cleaner and safer. This is something that we wish to achieve with the Cleaner, Safer, Greener campaign.

“The campaign was launched to help bring forward initiatives that will maximise on the positivity and pride that we see across the BCP area with a key focus on the first steps towards creating a cleaner, greener, safer place for everyone, which is something that we wish to do for the locations mentioned.

“These locations do act as the presentation points for a number of bins, the ones by Poole Museum being provided by BCP, these being the refuse and recycling bins for the venue. The area by Antelope Alley has some residential and commercial bins, the latter ones being locked by the businesses at night, so that they aren’t used by others and to prevent the waste from escaping due to overflow. We have spoken to the commercial waste team to ensure that all the bins are presented correctly. Our cleansing teams will also visit the area to stay on top of any issues that may come forward.

“We encourage all residents within the conurbation to help us keep BCP a clean and presentable area by using our Report It feature online, so that we are aware of the problem areas that need attending to and each case can be dealt with individually.”