Shifnal Town Centre Maintenance

I have had some feedback from officers regarding upkeep and maintenance of the Town Centre of Shifnal:

“Thank you for contacting us with the above numbered enquiry regarding the weed growth in the new paved areas of Shifnal.

I visited the site on Thursday of last week as I had received a number of complaints regarding the growth of weeds and the number of cigarette ends being left there.

This year, the County will have had two treatments for weeds.  The first was completed at the end of May and the second will due in the next two weeks but this is weather dependent.  After this time, if the weeds are still there, I will raise further work orders to address this.

I have checked with our contractors and the area is mechanically swept weekly and the bins are emptied on average four times per week.  I have requested that some of the premises in the locality are visited by our Environmental Wardens to see if placing sand buckets outside would deter customers from throwing cigarettes on the floor.

I have scheduled to meet with the Town Council at the end of October to monitor how this is going and to address any other issues relating to maintenance that they may have.”

From another officer:

“I took the opportunity to walk the town centre area this earlier this morning to have a look at the problems that you have described.  I have taken a number of images which provides some evidence of what you describe.

I have asked several times for the area Street Scene team to visit and assess the area and provide me with an update of their findings which unfortunately hasn’t happened again this week.  Therefore, I will escalate the matter to the officer who has managing the street scene contract following the departure of another officer.  I have a meeting scheduled for Wednesday 27^th and I will raise the subject then.

In regards to the blocked channels, again I looked at all of the channels within the enhancement scheme.  An officer has an order raised to deal with the situation from the Café to Kings Yard access road, however, there will have to be more work planned than this one location.  The issue we will have will be cleansing of the new assets without causing issues for shoppers, highway users and residents.  We will have to plan the work to happen before shops are open or evening when shops are less busy.  This is lead the probability of receiving complaints about noise but I don’t see we have any other option.  Cleansing of drainage channels can be a messy and noisy business.  Once I have a date or series of dates as to when this work will happen I will let you know.”

Response from Fix My Street: