Litter in and around the town

We would like to thank our groups of volunteers who have been helping by picking up litter in and around the town. Wealden District Council are responsible for refuse and litter and we have contacted them with concerns over the large quantity of litter that has been appearing in Polegate recently.

They have responded to us stating  “we do have a schedule where litter picking and a mechanical sweeper will operate in the roads around Polegate. Unfortunately this is on a cyclic rota, so is visited around twice a year. (The main high street should receive cleansing on a weekly basis). Often we find we can go out an do the relevant work and a couple of days later we get a storm or heavy rain and this can undo the work that has just been completed.

Looking at the current schedule, general street cleansing was carried out at the end of December and the sweeper attended in October. Further Street cleansing is planned for March and the sweeper again in April. Obviously all of this is dependent on suitable access which certainly parts of Brook Street always have cars parked which restricts us cleansing up to the kerb line.

I have asked for our streets team to visit next week to check the state of the road as they would be able to request with our contractor for extra cleansing if required.

I am aware of the issue with the litter bins in the high street and we were planning on upgrading some of these bins but have had to allocate the cost due to a large number of damaged bins which needed to take priority.

With regards to litter picking, I know we have started to get more volunteers in Polegate who are undertaking litter picks and we do all we can to support them, including providing equipment and the collection of any bags they generated. So please feel free to get the resident to get in contact with us.”