Street sweepers not doing their jobs, say residents
A Glenwood resident feels municipal cleaners should be monitored, and the area cleaned on a daily basis.
GLENWOOD streets are foul! That's the verdict of local residents who are “appalled and disgusted” by the mess and rubbish that litters the area.
Rosemary Cracknell said the build-up of litter, faeces, rotting food and plastic bottles shesencounters while walking to Davenport Centre from Glenwood Village shows that street cleaners need to do a lot more than they are currently doing.
“It is most distressing to see that litter in the streets is no longer being cleaned in the areas around Glenwood Village Mall, Hunt Road, Newton Place, especially outside the Hunt Road Secondary School. It breaks my heart to see our lovely Berea and Glenwood areas becoming filthy, smelly slums,” she said.
Cracknell said the bridge over the freeway leading into Hunt Road from Musgrave Road is sometimes so congested with rotting food, litter and bad smells that she feels ill after crossing it. She said take-away food is purchased from shopping malls and mostly consumed in cars parked in and around local malls or on the way home while walking. When food is finished, containers with unfinished food and bottles are dumped on the pavements and in the gutters.
“The areas which really need a daily clean-up, as once a week is really not enough, are around the shopping malls. On numerous occasions on my walk down Hunt Road I have passed the street cleaning crew armed with food bought from the Spar at around 11.30am. They walk straight past the piles of litter and rotten smelling faeces and when I asked why they are not cleaning it up, I was told that they will come back after lunch – which, of course, never happens. It is quite obvious that these municipal employees are never monitored and most of the streets they are supposed to clean are never checked! Surely someone in the municipality must take responsibility for this serious health hazard?” said Cracknell.
Another resident, Jennifer Richardson, also called on the municipality to explain why the street she lives in has not been swept for months.
“There are street sweepers in the parallel streets to mine daily. Houses from number 15 to number 25 on both sides should get discounted rates bills for non-delivery,” she said.
She said street cleaners advance a few meters into Ebor Avenue, Glenwood, from both Clark and Helen Joseph Roads but the area between these numbers is never swept.
“Our last sweep and weed removal day was in December! I and a few others have cleared our pavements ourselves, so should be paid for such via a discount!” she said.
Requests for comment from eThekwini Municipality had not been received by the time Berea Mail went to print.
