Street Scene
The District Council has a responsibility to ensure that the adopted roads, pavements and publicly owned open areas of the district are cleansed and maintained as set out in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA), to standards prescribed by the Code of Practice for Litter and Refuse (COPLAR).
The Code of Practice for Litter and Refuse (COPLAR) sets out minimum standards of cleanliness for relevant land under the control of a duty body, and the maximum response times for a duty body to return land to be free from litter and refuse if it falls below the minimum standard. Response times are determined by intensity of use for relevant land and zoned accordingly. There are a number of duty bodies affected by this code of practice.
Members of the public can request an appointment to view details of relevant land within the district, its intensity of use zone, and associated cleansing response time at Huntingdonshire District Council Offices.
Members of the public can make a formal complaint if land is not being maintained in accordance with the EPA and COPLAR, and have the right to seek redress in the courts if the litter duty is not met, through issue of a Litter Abatement Order. For general information on this topic please view 'Litter Law' in external links to the right.
More information concerning the Environmental Protection Act and Code of Practice for Litter and Refuse is also available under external links.
How we keep Huntingdonshire Clean
To keep the district clean, we have three separate methods of working:-
- Mechanical sweeping, using both large and small sweepers, sweeping along planned routes that can be daily, weekly or monthly, depending on the need.
- Manual cleansing, (employees that physically pick up litter all day).
- Mobile teams that can go anywhere in the district where a litter problem occurs.
In most cases, we can respond very quickly to litter problems, however, cleansing litter on the major trunk roads such as the A14 or A1 is a dangerous activity and in these cases, such work has to be pre planned and agreed by the police and highways agency.
We regularly monitor and review our service to ensure that we continue to provide a high quality, efficient and cost effective service and we do this by,
- Monitoring the volume of cleansing reports received
- Undertaking surveys based on government standards.
The cleansing survey link on the right provides details of how this is done.
How Can You Help?
Please dispose of your litter, rubbish and dog fouling responsibly, using the bins provided. If there is no litter bin in the area, please take your litter home with you.
If you are experiencing litter problems in your area please let us know. We want you to report your concerns to us.
If you see any fly tipping please let us know that too. If a vehicle is involved, please try and report its registration number too. This could help us trace the offender.
Wrap up your chewing gum and put it in a bin or take it home.
Set a good example to others, particularly children; show and teach them good habits for life; please use all the facilities available to you and take the initiative yourself. Help us to help you keep Huntingdonshire tidy.
Street Scene Facts and Figures
We carry out cleansing activities 363 days per year. The service operates in reduced format on Sundays and bank holidays.
We provide and empty many hundreds of litter bins across the district every week. Some are emptied weekly. Many have to be emptied every day and some (in the main Towns), two or three times a day.
Each year we collect over a thousand tonnes of litter and dumped material.