#GlasgowDecides: What you need to know about... Cleansing

Glasgow will go to the polls on May 5th to choose a new city council and in the run up to the local council election, we're putting your questions to the parties and getting the answers you want on the big issues in Glasgow.

One of the biggest topics in the city over the last year has been cleansing and each of the group leaders have been telling us what they'll do to tackle the issues of litter, graffiti, bins and cleaning up our streets. Read each of their responses below:

SNP

SNP Group Leader Councillor Susan Aitken said: “I think I would say we were making really significant progress in cleansing before the pandemic hit, we had, for example, invested to replace all of the old ash cans in back courts and tenements now have modern green bins. Those ash cans were a big contributor to just rubbish all over the place and actually, they were one of the main contributors to rats. The new and closed bins are making a difference and an improvement in that. So, we've made a lot of progress there.

“We've also put in place a new neighborhood approach to cleansing, so we've got neighborhood coordinators, which we've now increased and there's one for every single ward in the city. Initially, we had, I think it was eight working across the city. And it was a big success. There were real improvements. They were working with community councils, for example, to target hotspots. So we've put that in place right across the city.

“There had to been a lack of investment in the cleanse and service for a long time. There was no question about that, you know, the bin lorries were really dated. The street sweepers were really out of date, the bins themselves were out of date. So, we replaced the street bins, the old lamppost bins, were a big contributor to street waste, because rubbish just used to fly out of them. We've started replacing the fleet with a much more updated equipment and we've started recruiting staff as well.

“There's been a big increase in environmental crime during the pandemic that we’ve had to deal with as well from what you might call petty crime, like graffiti, for example – and we've seen an explosion in that over the past couple of years. I don't mean art, I mean tagging - right up to criminally organised dumping of which, was the issue that had happened under the M8, for example. That was criminal gangs that did that and there are elements of that happening in other parts of Glasgow as well. So there's no question that we were hit with that double whammy in the city.

“I think over the next year, possibly even more quickly than that, people will see a big difference with the investments that have been made as the service starts to recover. And those changes have that impact. They'll see that Glasgow is not only looking better and cleaner than it did during the pandemic, but actually getting to the point where we're looking better and cleaner than we did before the pandemic as well.”

Labour

Labour Group leader Councillor Martin Cunning said: “What we need to do is to get more people out on the streets, actually cleaning the streets. That is the essential prerequisite of any attempt to turn the situation around.

“We would promise to do two things. One is invest directly in cleansing services itself and create an additional 200 jobs of people actually out there on the ground doing the work. The other thing that we would do, and it was suggested by ourselves in this year's budget proposals that were rejected by the administration, is the creation of what was our environmental task force from the previous administration. And we would do that through Jobs & Business Glasgow, creating 400 training opportunities over three years in anG investing £6 million with the clear task of creating a cleaner, greener Glasgow.

“It also has the benefit of creating training opportunities for some people that are desperately looking to get back into work, or into work for the first time.

“I'm also laying out something that we desperately need to do is not only to re-engage with our trade unions and our own staff, but actually once again, gain the trust of our own staff and unless you actually invest in people, you are not going to solve the problem.”

Conservatives

Glasgow Conservative group leader Thomas Kerr said: “We have a five-point plan. We firstly believe that this is an issue, we don't just think the city needs to spruce up. The way in which the administration has handled this issue has been utterly disgraceful.

“In October, I launched a five-point plan. And I'm really, really proud of that five-point plan, because it is something that’s not just an election thing. It's something we've been fighting on for the past few years.

“We'd scrap the bulk uplift charge. We're the only party in Glasgow, that has never voted for a bulk uplift charge. That's really, really important. We're the only party that didn't want to penalise working class people with a bulk uplift charge.

“We want to reverse the bin collection cuts and getting back to our fortnightly collection. We want to invest £10 million over the next five years and in frontline services to ensure that we've got the people in the front line that we need, not senior managers, not bureaucrats, people who are going to get the job done.

“We also want to create an Environmental Enforcement Team, which would deal with all that fly tipping taking place in the city in particular. But on top of that, there's also £1.5 million we want to invest into residential roads to deal with potholes.

“You'll hear it constantly from me for the next six weeks and you've had it for the past two years. But if you want to clean up Glasgow, if you want to make sure the city's proper and looks the way it should be, if you believe that city doesn't need to spruce up, then there's only one party that you can vote for and that’s the Glasgow Conservatives, because we've been consistent on them.”

Greens

Glasgow Greens co-leader Martha Wardrop said: “So far we've pushed for investment in recycling and upgrading facilities and back courts and back lanes with additional funding through the budget process.

“Shops have responsibility as well. The business community's signing up to a business waste charter, which should reduce overall waste consumption - we've got to really change the way people see a waste and litter and people have to think again about their habits and look at reusing as much as they can.

“We’re committed to community action on the ground. Workers would obviously be involved closely in any decision making and planning at local neighborhood level, street by street, we would want resident groups working with businesses and staff, along with elected.

“We know that in local streets, in local neighborhoods, everyone has their own unique set of interests and personalities, people who are involved, want to have a bigger say on what's happening locally. So, we want to push for a local agenda on this. There's no one size fits all solution, we have to listen to everyone and pull everyone together to come up with the best solution for each neighborhood.”

Alba

Alba Spokesperson Chris McEleny said: “I think that the standards of cleansing in Glasgow have certainly dropped drastically over the last five, probably 10 years. And one of the major drivers of that is the chronic underfunding of local government services.

“But that's not enough for Glasgow to get off the hook, because we've got a lot of council areas where you don't see the same level of dirty streets that haven't been cleaned, you don't see the same level of graffiti.

“So that's got to be an absolute priority and Alba councilors right across Scotland, certainly in Glasgow, are prioritising that. We're making sure that the target resources put in place, we are making sure that we listen to the trade unions, the GMB and the community and we fund these jobs.”

Liberal Democrats

Glasgow Liberal Democrat spokesperson Theo Lockett said: “The local environment and the climate crisis and transport all come into one. Part of making Glasgow the best city that it possibly can be, to us, involves fighting against the cuts from Holyrood.

“So, we are now seeing a 10th consecutive year of cut to public spending and Keep Scotland Beautiful now say that Glasgow is the third dirtiest local authority. The SNP have made promises and they've persistently failed to support our services.

“In the COP26 crisis we saw Susan Aitken actually blaming residents and trade unions for the state of the city when it is really the SNPs responsibility to take care of this. Liberal Democrats in Glasgow want to invest in frontline services and stand up to the SNP in Holyrood who have placed cut upon come upon the city which the SNP administration has meekly accepted.”

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