Councillors to discuss public order plan to tackle rubbish and antisocial behaviour in two Cliftonville streets

Tackling litter, fly-tipping and antisocial behaviour Photo ARTRA

Thanet council Cabinet members will discuss plans to introduce a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) on Athelstan and Ethelbert Roads in Cliftonville designed to crack down on littering and fly-tipping and antisocial behaviour.

The order is part of a wider Thanet Multi-agency Task Force project to help to reduce crime and ASB and improve the appearance of the two roads.

Residents and business owners, as well as landlords with properties in Athelstan and Ethelbert Roads and neighbouring streets, were invited to give their views on the proposed PSPO, in a public consultation that ended on Friday 9 December.

The council received 80 formal written responses to the public consultation. 92% of respondents indicated that they either agreed or strongly agreed with the proposals. A visual representation of the proposed rules was also distributed and a further 21 households submitted their views via this route.

The issues that survey respondents said were most important to them were fly-tipping or dumped rubbish, dog fouling and the general appearance of the area.

The proposed PSPO will mean:

  • Residents must put their household rubbish in the correct bin.
  • Residents must put out their bins on the correct collection day.
  • Residents must not leave bins out on the street apart from on collection day. This means putting out bins between 6pm on the day before collection is due, and taking them back onto their property no later than 8pm on collection day.
  • Residents must not dump or leave waste or litter on driveways, in gardens or other outdoor spaces.
  • Residents must make sure that garden walls and fences are safe and in good condition.
  • Residents must not make noise at any time that is likely to disturb their neighbours.

Members of the public will not be able to use the alleyway between Athelstan Road and Ethelbert Road as the council will install lockable gates at each end. Residents, guests, emergency services and certain other authorised people will still be able to use the alleyway.

If the order is agreed, the new rules will apply to anyone in Athelstan and Ethelbert Roads. Enforcement officers will have the authority to enforce the new rules through Fixed Penalty Notices. The order will not replace any other laws or regulations that are already in place.

Thanet council says there are approximately 2,077 streets in Thanet but:

  • 7% of all flytipping within the district is contained within Athelstan and Ethelbert Roads, including the alleyway between the two roads.
  • 32% of all Fixed Penalty Notices issued in Thanet are issued at this location.
  • Over the last 12 months, 64% of complaints on Athelstan and Ethelbert Roads have been in relation to waste and fly-tipping.

If approved by Cabinet at a meeting on January 26, the PSPO will come into effect on Friday 27 January and the new rules will apply to anyone in Athelstan and Ethelbert Roads. Explanatory signs will be installed and enforcement officers will have the authority to enforce the new rules through Fixed Penalty Notices. The PSPO will be in place for three years.

It will become the fifth PSPO area agreed for Thanet.

PSPOs

A public spaces protection order is an order made by the Local Authority if it is satisfied on reasonable grounds that two conditions are met. These are:

That activities being carried out within a public place have had detrimental effect on the quality of life of those in the locality or it is likely they will.

That the effect, or likely effect, of these activities is, or is likely to be, of a persistent or continuing nature, such as to make the activities unreasonable.

The orders identify public places and prohibit specific things from being done in that area or require specific things to be done in that area for a maximum of 3 years.

Breach of the order would constitute a criminal offence.

Council plans for public order to tackle rubbish and antisocial behaviour in two Cliftonville streets

Tackling rubbish and crime in Athelstan Road: Residents launch litter picks and Task Force pledges two year scheme of action

Thanet Multi-Agency Task Force: Tackling drug supply lines, supporting care and prison leavers and more for the year ahead

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28 Comments

  1. How much council tax payers money and people’s time are wasted on these couple of streets. There has to be a better solution than this never ending cycle!

  2. Finally a possibility of action. I wonder how the Council plan to enforce this? It’s a very long time coming, given the work of local resident Matt Shoul, who’s been picking litter off Althestan for years while asking Councillors and Officers to do something.

    Another thing TDC could do is to enforce the Housing Health & Safety rules for the many appalling landlords on this street. I’ve never seen so many “death traps” in one concentrated area.

    • Really, so the 10 years of selective licensing for private rented property achieved nothing then? Not saying the scheme was anything other than a revenue raising scheme , but perhaps an investigation should be instigated to discover what was done under selective licensing in two roads that were pretty much the reason the scheme was invoked. The council “ intended” to inspect every licensed property over the course of the scheme ona worst first basis so again you’d have expected athelstan and ethelbert to have received lots of attention.
      However as this latest proposal shows many of the issues arise from the residents and their behaviours rather than landlords who are housing people few would otherwise want to. Which is largely why TDC don’t shut many of these places down.
      In the past these roads were intheir own little world and the residents lived amongst the squalor and local behaviours quite happily , the arrival of the more affluent and gentrification has just made the previous arrangement more visible.

      • The selective licensing as you say LC was a cash cow.

        Madeline Homer, Gavin Waite and others are responsible for destroying so much of the Isle through their money grabbing incompetence. Supported of course by most of the Councillors.

        Closing off the back lanes is just one of the solutions that should have been established years ago.

        The artwashing gentrification recent arrivals calling out TDC’s failures of street cleaning and waste management is at least supportive of beneficial to all environmental improvement.

        BUT it will only be as good as its enforcement which is lamentable.

        Despite the rules, people who transgress will continue to behave anti socially. And frankly on this issue I include the ineptitude of the council to manage the problem intelligently.

        How many enforcement officers are there? One, two, How many TDC?

        Short cuts to sharp practices.

    • For clarity Pirate Jenny, Cliftonville West Councillors have worked extremely hard to improve Athelstan Road and the surrounding area including support and attending resident group ARTRA, improving and increasing waste and recycling collections, mixed recycling bins nearby, environmental issues, removing the hated paladin bins by the ex car wash, double yellow lines for the Haven car park, alleyway cleanups, countless flytipping removal, litter picks,countless casework assisting local residents and of course support and assistance for the current PSPO residents.

  3. When you look back .The council allowed all these houses to be divided up into flats or h m o . With no waste storage space parking ect.Now they have to come up with plan to cure a problem that they created themselves.

    • Not completely fair assesment. At the end of the day it is down to people to sort their refuse appropriately, most of us do!

    • They have , their are bulk bins at the end of the road, the issue is that people won’t use them, won’t pick up their dogs s”&t, want to scream and shout at all hours and do what they want when they want.

  4. And again it’s Cliftonville ? Let’s throw more council tax money on the disgusting people that keep making it a tip ,mean time TDC will let all the other areas which need help with ASB put them on the back burner, let the people in Cliftonville live with it ,then maybe the people that see this happing will report it to the council and then put a stop to it once and for all, you know who is doing this ,take photos and put a stop to it .

      • its also important to make sure that the people from other countries are told that this country, this is how we do things, and opening a window and throwing a Morrisons shopping bag full of rubbish, including dirty nappies is not acceptable. The lack of respect for others in some area’s is appalling.

  5. TDC have to a great part created this problem over many years by allowing the provision of poor quality largely unregulated multi occupancy dwelling in these streets and at the same time not ensuring adequate weekly rubbish disposal and street sweeping. This policy is long over due it just remains to be seen if resources will be put in place for enforcement .

    Perhaps at last those long standing residents trying to improve the
    area are now being listened to by local councillors who appeared to have had tin ears when it came to Cliftonville and central Margate wards in the past.

    • Indeed – it is likely that 95% of these problems are caused by 5% 0f the residents and businesses.

      It is all very well TDC introducing new rules or policies if there is nobody with the drive and tenacity to actually haul themselves out of the office and undertake some street level enforcement. 9-5 Monday to Friday is no good either – it has to be evenings and weekends too.

      I have not heard of anybody being caught, challenged or prosecuted . Fixed penalty notices may have been issued but were they ever paid or enforced – or did the culprit have an unpronounceable name with three different spellings and has never been traced to a given address ? Certainly whatever may have been tried in the past has failed miserably.

      A more robust form of enforcement needs to be undertaken.

  6. This council dont care about litter.There is apalling levels of litter all over Thanet.I recently complained to them about an overflowing private bin owned by a restaurant. The rubbish was all down the street and you could smell the rotting food 30 yards away.I was told by the council it was nothing to do with them as the bin was private.Albion rd in Broadstairs is about a mile long.Every single step has approx 3 pieces of litter and its been like that for years.

      • I don’t think they like to litter any more than other areas.

        The big difference is that other Councils are more competent at clearing it up.

        • Maybe but it’s still a human that’s puts the litter down ! Why should others have to pick up behind them ?

          • I agree with the principle but that’s like saying people should obey the law so why have a police force or a justice system or prisons ? There are miscreants in every area but the key thing that TDC don’t seem to understand is that filth breeds filth. Once a street is covered in litter or dog poo where is the motivation for others to clear up after themselves ? That’s why these problems get worse exponentially.

            I’ve travelled extensively throughout the UK and beyond with work and leisure and I will say that Thanet is the filthiest place I have ever been to. The level of street cleanliness is beyond belief in some areas.

  7. Has the hierarchy in TDC bothered to look at and think of St. Peter’s where we lost our excellent road sweeper months ago and she’s never been replaced. I complained to TDC about it and the resulting rubbish on the roads but not even an acknowledgement from them. The village and Beacon Road areas are disgusting so how can they even consider raising our Council Tax when we don’t get the basic for our money?

  8. Whilst you are at it TDC can you do something about the increased amount of ‘tagging’in the area (and Thanet as a whole). It’s on so many walls and buildings. Says a lot about an area, as does the amount of rubbish strewn around the place 🤬

  9. Some DFL’s will soon be motivated to stand for council looking to raise the standards of Thanet to the lowest bog standard of a London council area.
    Many councillors living the life for years will hopefully be replaced by new blood.
    Viva DFL’s

  10. It’s funny, all this DFL stuff. Living in Ramsgate I know folk who came down to Thanet decades ago, some from London but also Manchester and all points north of Watford, even from over the Border. And others from the West Country and Wales! There’s even a few from “overseas”.
    And then we have all those colliary workers down from the north and over from Wales.
    Perhaps DFL should be changed to DFW, down from the world! Or DFEE’s – down from everywhere else!
    When people come to Thanet to live it becomes home, that’s it!
    If someone makes Thanet their home they belong just as much as someone who can take their heritage back a few centuries.

    • Am a manc but lived here for a few decades now. Personally once I retire I am off back north. I know a few who are going back once retired.

      Fed up with the fast pace of live here, terrible driving standards, graffiti, litter, rudeness, everyone is so aggressive so quick to say f**k off if you make a mistake on the road when driving and that’s just the women the men are worst, expansive beer ! I miss my gravy with my chips.

      Manchester is so much cleaner even the car parking is cheaper !

      In the few decades I have been here the standards of thanet has just fallen and fallen. It isnt getting any better its getting worse

      • Shame your experience has been like this Happy Manc. The vast majority of Thanet folk I’ve met have been lovely but many, many who post on IoTN are rude, sarky and even hostile. I sometimes look them up on social media to find they don’t live on the Isle!

  11. The standards that TDC set are the reason.
    No litter pick up, no weeding, no turf cleaning from the kerbstones,no dog poo pick up, no graffiti clean up,overflowing bins etc.Kind of makes it acceptable for some people to do these things.
    Third World cities are cleaner.As I have said before, Thanet is Britains dirtiest place.

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