Keeping our town clean and tidy
Overflowing litter bins
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Street cleaning policy
Cheltenham town centre is litter picked, mechanically swept and spot power washed where needed every morning including weekends. Litter picking carries on throughout the day until 5pm.
Major routes into the town are swept weekly or more often if necessary.
All areas outside the town centre are scheduled to be litter picked according to their needs and this can vary from a twice weekly litter pick to a monthly litter pick depending on how busy the area is and the amount of litter that occurs.
Fly-tipping that is found during the litter picking works is reported to our Neighbourhood team and following their investigation is removed, or if it is reported to us a ticket will be raised to inspect and remove it as soon as practical.
The schedules will be altered during the autumn months as more emphasis will be placed on leaf clearance.
Inspections are carried out daily by the street cleaning supervisor.
Cleansing of Cheltenham town centre
Every morning from 6am to around 8.30am our teams work their way around the town centre emptying litter bins, litter picking and picking up any fly-tipping. The teams start off in the town centre by Clarence Fountain and then work out in different directions to quickly clear the town centre. Any issues from overnight are either dealt with as part of this routine cleaning or are reported to the office if specialist equipment is needed.
The five teams carrying out manual cleaning of routes consist of a driver with a 3.5 tonne cage vehicle and one or two additional crew members. The vehicles all run on certified palm oil free hydro treated vegetable oil, not diesel, to reduce the carbon emissions and improve air quality.
Town centre cleaning schedule
- Team 1 moves along the High Street to the Strand, Cambray Place, Pittville Street and Winchcombe Street, then to Berkley Gardens and the traffic lights on London Road (including the side roads on this route)
- Team 2 moves down the Lower High Street to the junction of Tewkesbury Road and Gloucester Road including all the side roads along the way
- Team 3 moves along the Promenade up to Montpellier and the Gordon Lamp and then returns into the town centre along Montpellier Street including all the side roads on this route
- Team 4 consists of a cage vehicle driver and an officer on foot pushing a barrow with a broom and litter picker to deal with the Clarence Fountain area. This team then moves out to support the other crews in the town centre
- Team 5 also consists of a cage vehicle driver and another officer who service the outer ring road and Bath Road, emptying litter bins and litter picking
From around 8.30am every day Team 4 stays in the town centre dealing with anything as needed throughout the day until 4pm. The other teams move out to the rest of the borough.
Any issues that can't be dealt with as part of the routine cleaning are reported back to the office for another team to pick up, such as vomit, human excrement, graffiti or damage to street furniture.
Mechanical street cleaning
From 6am until around 8.30am two small pavement sweepers cover all the pedestrianised areas from the Strand at the top of the High Street through the town centre to the Queens Hotel. The pavement sweepers also cover all the pedestrianised areas where there are no width restrictions and they can fit on the pavement safely down the Lower High Street and past the Brewery up to St Pauls Street South.
In addition, two mechanical road sweepers work their way around our road network in the town centre before moving out to sweep the main roads into the borough and residential areas where they work their way around the roads in our borough during the course of the year. You can expect to see a mechanical road sweeper in your road at least once a year. Some areas on the flood routes or where there are lots of trees can expect to see this more regularly. Main roads into the town are all mechanically swept at least weekly, more if needed.
Jet washing
We use specialist equipment for cleaning vomit, human excrement, food spillages, graffiti, mess on street furniture and bird poo.
We have two jet washers to deal with much of this mess. The pressure and the temperature of the water can be controlled to deal with delicate and not so delicate surfaces. Clarence Fountain is jet washed as needed and this can be every day but is scheduled for Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and/ or Sundays. Other issues are spot cleaned as needed, when reported by the street cleansing teams first thing in the morning or by businesses or members of the public. Pavements and benches subject to a lot of mess from birds, particularly during the bird nesting season, are jet washed every two weeks, more if needed, and this can be daily and takes a lot of time. The Promenade, Regent Street and High Street are usually spot jet washed every other day. This equipment also deals with graffiti removal around the borough.
Every 12 weeks a deep clean occurs across the town centre where possible. This includes but is not limited to chewing gum removal and deep stains.
Street clearance dates
Street clearances involve the deep cleaning of gutters and channels, mechanical sweeping of roads, weed ripping, flood alleviation works, gully clearing and, if necessary, jet washing of both roads and footpaths.
Three to four days before street clearance works are set to take place, signs and cones will be laid out to inform residents when work going to take place. Street clearances are usually carried out from 9am to 11am.
Please can all parked cars be moved from these areas on street clearance days. If parked cars are not moved we will be unable to complete the full street clearance service.
All street clearance works for this period have now been completed. Street clearances works will resume in December 2023 - May 2024 and an updated timetable of the dates of when these will happen will be published later this year.
This year we have managed to complete street clearance works in all of the below locations.
| Clearance area | |
|---|---|
| Gratton Road | |
| Ashford Road | |
| Andover Road and Street | |
| Tudor Lodge and Drive | |
| All Saints Road and Selkirk Close | |
| Pittville Circus | |
| Wellington Square | |
| Clarence Square | |
| Sydenham Road | |
| Kings Road | |
| Cranham Road | |
| Princes Street | |
| Sydenham Villas Road | |
| Priory Street | |
| Oxford Street | |
| London Road (High Street to Hewlett Road) | |
| Keynsham Road | |
| Pittville Lawn (Pittville Gates to Central Cross) | |
| Pittville Lawn (Central Cross to Albert Road) | |
| Montpellier Terrace | |
| College Road (London Road to Orrisdale Terrace) | |
| Orrisdale Terrace | |
| St Pauls Road - Vine Court | |
| Christ Church Road | |
| Eldorado Road | |
| Eldorado Cresent | |
| St Lukes Road | |
| Evesham Road - Wellington Road to Clarence Road | |
| Alstone Lane (Gloucester Road to the level crossing) | |
| Pates Avenue | |
| Roman Road |