As spring arrives, spring cleaning comes to mind. Looking around the borough, the council is spending significant millions of pounds each year on keeping Newham clean and making good progress towards this however, there is still what seems to be, endless fly tipping, litter dropping and less savoury abuse of our environment like spitting, even though enforcement has been increased and instant fines introduced.

On reflection, perhaps it’s the other E-education that needs to be increased. Not so long ago the Keep Newham Tidy campaign was extremely active in schools, community meeting places, at community festivals across Newham etc, achieving some good success. A bit longer ago individuals were taking pride in and accepting responsibility for keeping the environment clean. I can vividly remember my mother and other neighbours sweeping down the footpath in front of their houses each week.

There is no excuse for anyone leaving their rubbish for someone else to clean up, especially in Newham where the council will collect bulk rubbish from your front free of charge, the waste transfer station at Jenkins Lane provides free tipping and recycling to all residents and there is a weekly refuse collection and two weekly recycling collections for every household.

If we can educate and encourage individuals to take pride in our environment and not leave the rubbish in the first place, leaving enforcement for those who will not learn, not only will the borough be a cleaner place for all, the money saved can be diverted to providing more facilities that our communities need and want!

Help me to restart the Keep Newham Clean campaign today.