Just take a walk around Higher Shotton – Is Operation Clean up really working?

Operation Clean-up: Flintshire County Council’s scheme to clean up the environment has had another success in chasing ONE person for a non payment of fines prosecution.

Admirably the operation carried out a successful prosecution against a man from Bromborough, Wirral for throwing litter from his vehicle.

The incident occurred in Overlea Drive, Hawarden on 13 November 2013 and by a stroke of luck was witnessed by a Flintshire Councillor who noted the registration number of the vehicle and reported it accordingly.

The result of the prosecution was a fine totalling £691.08 

While the council are throwing much stretched resources into chasing one individual for non payment of an Fixed Penalty Notice  – Overall ‘Operation Clean’ appears to have failed the people of Higher Shotton.

The initiatives aim is to rid the streets, parks and fields of persistent offenders who litter the streets in which they live, and prosecute those who allow their dogs to foul the pavements often close to their own ‘homes’.

The whole exercise sadly smacks of a PR exercise to mask the fact the resources are simply not being deployed into areas of Flintshire that had previously been fairly well served.

We took a walk along North Street, Chevron`s Road and Clwyd Street (The street we previously claimed to be Wales’ dirtiest!) and while we have tried to capture on camera the scale of the problem, it’s difficult to really get a sense of the issue until you walk through the streets.

Shotton is classed as an area of multiple deprivation, its no coincidence that prosecutions are more likely to happen in more affluent areas of the county, such as Hawarden. 

From the address lists on the Flintshire council’s website no councillor lives near these streets we have highlighted, and perhaps this is one reason why persistent littler and dog fouling issues aren’t being addressed.

The UK charity Carnegie trust said;

“Deprived urban communities are clearly disproportionately affected by local environmental problems such as dog fouling, the current pressures on public finances have naturally resulted in greater competition for resources, in these circumstances there is a danger of deprived areas losing out to more affluent areas with sharp elbows”. 

The pictures fail to capture the scale of the issue on these three streets however, for the sake of repetition we won’t post the 39 images of dog faeces we counted on a 600 metre walk in Shotton, we do have a file with all the images, date and time stamped and with Geo-location data if anybody wants a copy.

At the launch of Councillor Kevin Jones, Cabinet Member for Public Protection, Waste and Recycling, said:

“There still remains the irresponsible minority who fail to pick up their litter, or to clean up after their dog. In adopting this more strengthened targeted approach to enforcement I believe that we are sending out the strongest possible message that dog fouling, littering, fly tipping and graffiti is anti-social and will not be tolerated.”