New councillor calls for bins to combat Portobello litter misery

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 15th Oct 2009

Councillor Caruana is campaigning for local residents

New Colville ward Councillor Carol Caruana has addressed the Council Chamber for the first time in order to draw attention to the misery caused by litter on Saturdays in Portobello. "I am delighted to live in an area that people from all over the world wish to visit, and long may that continue. But residents must be treated fairly. Many who live on the streets around Portobello Road tell me how irritated they are at the amount of food and drink wrappings that end up in their property after the tourist market day on Saturdays," said Councillor Caruana.

"It's not really a matter of street cleaning. The cleaning can't pick up the rubbish that has already fallen into basements and front gardens because tourists didn't see a bin to put the rubbish in.

"Let's fix the problem by putting more bins out on Saturday on the roads that tourists use to get to the market. Before I was elected, we already succeeded in getting one new bin added into Lancaster Road, but that's not enough.

"Unfortunately, the Conservative-controlled Council has long had a policy of the number of litter bins on our streets. They think that litter bins can attract the 'wrong kind of rubbish' - domestic and market waste instead of litter. But I'm only asking for the extra bins to be there for one day and then it's up to the Council to enforce the rules and but are left to remove disgusting litter from their property week after week."