Help us to clear up messy town centre (From Gazette)

Help us to clear up messy town centre

5:00pm Tuesday 3rd July 2012 in News By James Calnan

Lion Walk manager Paul Bentham, officials from Colchester Council and town centre retailers launching the Love Where You Live campaign

A CAMPAIGN has been launched to keep Colchester town centre clean.

Business leaders joined Colchester Council and the Keep Britain Tidy campaign at the town hall yesterday to launch Love Where You Live.

Council officers took a snapshot of the town centre’s levels of rubbish and graffiti, which will be compared to the amounts found at the end of July to see if the trial has been a success. The project is spearheaded by Paul Bentham, manager of Lion Walk Shopping Centre.

He will present the findings to the British Council of Shopping Centres, which will decide whether it should become a national campaign.

Mr Bentham gave the cleanliness of the town centre 5/10, and said visitors and businesses could do more to improve it.

He said: “I’ve seen worse, but I’ve seen an awful lot better. All it would take is for the public to play their part, by remembering not to drop litter. If everybody did that, we would have a much cleaner place to do our shopping and spend leisure time. The council must have 40 bins on the High Street.”

Schools, charities and community groups will hold street cleans during July, posters will be put up around the town and anyone spotted putting rubbish in a bin will be given a Love Where You Live sticker.

Derek Ashbee, manager of Culver Square shopping centre, said town centres must do their best to match the experiences offered to visitors to out-of-town shopping centres.

He said: “They’re generally traffic free, litter free and climate controlled. If we keep our towns clean and attractive, it’s got to be of benefit.”

Martin Hunt, councillor responsible for street and waste services, said: “Our work to deliver education will hopefully increase people’s respect and pride in their town.”

Will Quince, leader of Colchester Council’s Conservative group, said the town centre was not clean enough at the moment and praised businesses for driving the campaign. He said: “I think it’s excellent. This is a private sector-led initiative to tackle a real issue in the town.”