MAINTAINING the cleanliness of town centres is a "huge priority" for BCP Council, a senior cabinet member has said.

The response from Cllr Nicola Greene came following a question by a member of Bournemouth Civic Society at a recent full council meeting.

John Soane, the civic society’s built environment consultant, raised issues with how the local authority was dealing with graffiti, overflowing bins and grass cutting policies.

Cllr Greene, portfolio holder for council priorities and delivery, said she wanted to thank the Bournemouth Civic Society for their interest in protecting the built and historic environment of the town.

Referring to Mr Soane’s question, she said: “He highlights an area of huge priority for this administration, based as it is on the daily concerns of our residents, businesses and visitors.

“What we see as we walk around our town and district centres impacts immensely on our sense of wellbeing and pride in our area. It is central to the Big Plan which we launched last year and to the Cleaner, Greener, Safer agenda which runs as a golden thread through our environmental work. We are committed to improving to improving our area with pilots already launched in the conurbation’s three town centres.”

In relation to graffiti, Cllr Greene said: “The thoughtless work of a moment which leaves property owners and those who see it with a distressing long-term problem. Graffiti on private property is the responsibility of the property owner and not that of the council. It is considered to be criminal damage and as such can be reported to Dorset Police.

“Council officers will be working with Business Improvement Districts, local businesses and private landowners – and other willing partners – within the pilot areas to encourage self-led action to clean up properties and property boundaries as part of shared action.”

Cllr Greene said the conurbation experienced an “exceptionally long and sustained” grass growth due to the weather. She said this was a significant change from the season’s normal conditions.

This was coupled with reduced staff levels due to Covid, the senior Conservative said.

The council trialled a ‘Let it Grow’ policy to establish grass meadows in open spaces, roundabouts and verges, however Cllr Greene said this would be tweaked in 2022 following feedback and learning last year.

On the subject of rubbish and letter, she said: “We have recently appointed an external company, to work in partnership with us on a 12-month pilot scheme to educate and where necessary take action against businesses who fail to contain waste in in an acceptable manner. During this time, they will undertake investigations and prosecutions of flytipping, failure of waste containment and flyposting incidents. I must stress though, this is a pilot programme subject to ongoing review to ensure that we are achieving our desired goals along the way.”

Labour councillor George Farquhar later described Cllr Greene's response to the question as being like "reading from a brochure".

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Soane told the Daily Echo: "While respecting the council’s good intentions to try and improve the situations I raised in my question, it does strike me, judging by the extensive files I have accumulated since June last year, that an awful lot of well meaning words have been said during the last six months.

"Apart from the adoption of a more balanced grass mowing policy, hardly anything concrete has been done."