Mopping up ‘filthy’ town centre

CONCERNS at the ‘filthy’ state of Frome town centre have been raised by the town council.

At the full town council meeting on Wednesday 22nd February, cllr Nick Dove spoke about rubbish and the untidy state of Frome’s town centre and streets, in line with the town council’s strategy to ‘make the town more beautiful’.

A street cleaner is employed by Mendip District Council, that is responsible for keeping most of the town clean and tidy. However, when the street cleaner is absent, there is currently no-one to do the work.

Cllr Nick Dove said, “Despite employing a street cleaner for the town centre, who has turned up and was brilliant, in their absence, there’s no system to replace an absent street cleaner. I spend a lot of time in the town centre and in the last week and a half, I have noticed it is disgusting, it’s filthy, there’s vomit on church steps that has stayed there, there’s piles of rubbish and rubbish in the new planters at Boyle Cross, with cigarette ends on the floor. It’s appalling. I propose we write to Mendip to ask what the process is and why they are not doing anything about it.”

Frome Town Council’s environment manager Rob said, “We have asked Mendip District Council and id verde [the company contracted to carry out the work] several times for clarity on this and feedback. They can take a long time to reply. The last reply stated that the street cleaner was off, but would be replaced by someone else. Whether that’s actually happening or not is a moot point.”

When the unitary council is formed in April, councillors agreed this could be an opportunity to review the process. Cllr Nick Dove said, “I think this goes towards how we should be thinking as a town, that we look to directly employ people to carry out these essential services. I think it would be far better if we look at employing people directly.”

Cllr Mel Usher said, “This is going to get worse. It’s January and Mendip go out of existence in April. It is not going to get any better, unless we keep the pressure on. Then the responsibility moves to Taunton. No matter how good the unitary authority is, the state of Frome town centre is not going to be high on their list and it will be up to local councillors to keep the pressure on.

“We need to devise a system that allows us to monitor what’s going on. Some years ago, we had Mendip Watch, that was reported at the town council meetings because things got so bad. They did improve, give them their credit and so did id verde. But this is going to start slipping, there’s no doubt about it. If you think about organisations, this is how they work and if they are far away and they haven’t got direct monitoring of what they are doing, they are bound to let things go through. We need to think about this.

“If we can’t keep town centre clean, then what can we do as a local government. It seems the simplest thing and how can a unitary authority be looking after children if we can’t get the town centre right?”

Pictured: Frome Town Centre.