To receive an update from Alysse Strachan, Head of Neighbourhood Services, on the management of waste and litter within Windsor, with respects to the Night-Time-Economy amongst other reasons. 

Alysse Strachan explained that there would be a daily litter picking in the Town Centre from 6:00 to 8:00pm. In the outer skirts of the Windsor Town Centre, there would be a weekly litter pick and sweep. In more rural residential areas, it would be more six-weekly litter picks and sweeps. Around rural roads, it would be every 3 months, with some of them being annual.

On household waste collection, Alysse Strachan stated that recycle and food waste collection would be weekly.

Regarding business waste, Alysse Strachan stated that there was a district enforcement team which conducted spot checks on ensuring businesses met their duty of care to manage their waste and investigate any reports of business misbehaviour.

Alysse Strachan explained that there was no overnight litter picking during the night-time economy as daily litter clearing in the Town Centre was from 6:00-8:00pm. Nevertheless, if there a report was received for clearing something after 6:00pm, it would be cleared in the following day.

Mr Griffin asked if takeaway food restaurants were contributing to keeping Windsor clean from litter, whether contributing to the costs of keep their areas clean or whether they were being fined. Alysse Strachan replied that fast food litter was an issue nationwide. While she was not aware of any individual businesses misbehaving, she would look into this. She also reiterated that the district enforcement team would promote education and enforce waste cleaning rules.

Claire asked who was responsible for clearing up litter along motorway slip roads and wondered if this could be cleared. Alysse Strachan replied that she was uncertain if it was the Borough or National Highways who were responsible but stated that she would investigate this.

Mr Wilson commented that litter mess had become worse in the last 10 years, believing that the Borough had not changed its approach to street cleaning in years. He asked if there were plans to update this. He also raised that the public bins in Alexandra Gardens were out-of-date and asked how many new public bins had been installed in the last three years. The Chair replied that more money had been added into the budget which would allow more money to be spent on street cleaning. Councillor Hilton added that one action which could take place was to promote a message to discourage littering. Alysse Strachan informed that the Borough was in midst of procuring the new cleansing contract with Volker Highways which was expected to take into effect in April 2024. She reiterated that more money in the budget meant the Council would be able to conduct street cleansing in the following year. She also stated that she would send a team to investigate the Alexandra Gardens bins. While she did not have the figures on how many new public bins were installed in the last three years, she suspected that it was a small amount due to a lack of capital investment. She hoped that things could be improved.

Referring to the document in the report, Councillor Price asked for clarification on the routine of litter cleaning, citing a case where she reported Wakefield Road and was told it would not be done for 48 days. Alysse Strachan replied that Wakefield Road would be cleaned on a six-weekly or three-monthly basis. She also stated that she could get the list of roads and their cleansing schedule. She also stated that cleaning could be affected by parked cars and resources, though this should not prevent the Borough from being back on top with cleaning. 

Councillor Wisdom Da Costa asked if it would be possible for a schedule to be provided on which streets would be cleaned and which days this would happen. He also asked if the cleaning was a frequency or standard. He also asked if it can be requested for the whole street to be cleared. Alysse Strachan confirmed that a whole street can be reported and then cleansed. She explained that the standards were set under the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse where it set out gradings for litter and detritus. If an area came under an unacceptable standard, it should trigger a complaint and a cleansing regime should begin. There were also time standards for cleaning the road depending on the intensity of the road used.

Mr Wilson raised that he had looked at the Freedom of Information request from September 2022 on the number of litter bins being installed since 1 June 2019, which, he stated, revealed that none had been installed since then. He then asked the Chair and other Forum members on not pushing for more litter bins to be installed. The Chair replied that the Council was seeking to do this by increasing the budget and the new contracts for cleansing.