A city-wide inspection has revealed the scale of Liverpool's litter and graffiti problems.
An assessment of 300 sites across the city by Keep Britain Tidy found that Liverpool’s issues were three times the national average. In a bid to combat the issues identified, Liverpool Council has launched a 12-month environmental action programme with an initial summertime focus on litter in parks and dog fouling.
The programme will be based on five principles including getting things right first time as a “huge amount” of council time and money is spent responding to littering complaints. Annually the local authority spends £9.5m on cleaning up litter.
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Business waste and litter will be targeted through a new partnership with Liverpool BID Company and Chamber of Commerce as well as ramped up enforcement procedures. The council is also hoping to effect behaviour change and maximise community action and volunteering.
Plans are being developed for a new type of bin which will help the city tackle the issue of black bag waste for more than 27,000 households. A follow-up survey across the city will be undertaken by Keep Britain Tidy in January 2023.
Joanne Anderson, Mayor of Liverpool, who is also political lead for waste management in Liverpool City Region, said she had launched a major review of the city’s waste processes and is consulting with community groups, businesses and schools. She added: “Everyone has a part to play in making our communities clean and tidy and the legacy of that will have huge consequences, economically and environmentally, which our future generations will greatly benefit from.”
Cllr Abdul Qadir, cabinet member for neighbourhoods, who commissioned the Keep Britain Tidy study earlier this year, said: “The benchmarking assessment clearly demonstrated there is a littering issue in the city and I know our residents have a huge desire for this to be tackled head-on. The council fully recognises that and is marshalling its resources to improve what we do and how we do it, be that more and bigger bins which are better located, a more targeted approach to hotspots and expanding our alleyways programme.”
Cllr Qadir added that this was not an issue the council could do on its own. He added: “This is on all of us – residents, businesses, schools and community groups working together and having a collective pride in the look and feel of our city.”
Chrisie Byrne, chair of the Liverpool Friends of Parks Forum, said: “The role of volunteers is crucial in this partnership. We have hundreds of people every day in our parks and greenspaces helping to keep them clean and tidy, collecting thousands of bin bags of litter a month so our visitors can enjoy the parks and the wildlife can live in them safely.”
