City ready for long battle in litter war.

Byline: Moira Sharkey

THE Keep Cardiff Tidy campaign is going to be a long battle - but with a city-wide effort, we can win the war on litter.

This was the message today from Cardiff County Council's litter tsar Phil Robinson.

The cabinet member for the environment said lessons could be learned from the events last weekend when the streets were not cleaned, bins not emptied and refuse depots shut.

Refuse staff refused to work overtime shifts as part of their industrial dispute over pay.

Meanwhile a decision was taken to shut the refuse depots on Saturday after staff received what was described as a ``hostile reaction'' from people who had not had their rubbish collected for 10 days because of last week's oneday strike by refuse staff.

Coun Robinson said: ``Nothing could have proven the absolute necessity of this campaign than the events of recent days.

``It shows just how much litter and waste we are fighting against, each and every day.

``We all recognise that the campaign is going to be a long battle. We will have triumphs, witness the reduction of street litter by 25 per cent in the first month, and we will have set backs as the events on the weekend showed. That is the nature and seriousness of our city-wide effort.

``What is changing is public understanding that litter is not someone else's problem, it is everyone's responsibility. Of course it is the council's role to clean the streets, but no council has the infinite resources necessary to combat the growing excesses of litter bugs and flytippers.

``We were all saddened to see the mountains of rubbish piled outside civic amenity sites.

``Ironically people had made the effort to take their rubbish to the sites but then dumped it outside on finding them closed.

``These people were committing an offence, they were flytipping.

``The message must be, in times of industrial dispute, please keep your litter at home, please bear with us while we seek to resolve the situation.''

NAME & SHAME

A VITAL part of this campaign is about getting litter hot spots cleaned up. The way to do it is to call Cardiff County Council's litter hotline on 029 2087 2087.

If you would like to speak to a Welsh language operator, call the council on 029 2087 2088.

The council has promised to take action within a week on all the hotspots you report to them.

And if you would like to make a comment on Cardiff's litter problem or nominate a business which needs to clean up its act, call the Echo litter hotline on 029 2058 3710 or send an e-mail to moira.sharkey @wme.co.uk Remember to leave your name and number.

If you would like to find out how schools and community groups can join or run a litter-picking event, contact Keep Wales Tidy on 029 2025 6767.

CAPTION(S):

PILED HIGH Rubbish outside the tip in Waungron Road, Fairwater.; PICTURE: Simon Ridgway