Council Leader sweeps the streets
Finding out about the work of the Street Cleaning team was ticked off his to-do list by Council Leader Ben Chapelard recently when he joined a crew on their daily rounds.
Starting in Royal Tunbridge Wells he met John, who many will recognise as a familiar face; keeping the town centre clean, rain or shine, John is there.
After the town centre it was into the van and on to Rusthall. Ben joined the crew as they emptied all the bins along the High Street. Once that task was complete the crew and their new recruit went to Lower Green Road to tackle the leaves along the pavements.
After his shift Ben said: ‘I find it very helpful to meet teams and get a feel for what they do, and I discovered there is a knack to using a broom if you want to be efficient and make best use of your time! The crew I joined really know the area and they care about what they do. It was nice seeing people recognise them and thank them. I was amazed by all the waste in the bins, I’m sure a lot of it could be taken home and recycled.’
The Council empties 750 street litter bins across the borough following a schedule that sees the most used bins being emptied most frequently.
Leaves are swept from the busiest roads and pavements in the borough where we know there is heavy leaf fall. The leaf sweeping schedule is planned in conjunction with the usual street cleaning rota.
