Record low for Big Boston Clean-up event

Boston Borough Council’s and Boston Town Area Committee’s street-cleaning staff acted as group leaders taking out volunteers to zoned areas of town each day.

Clean-up organiser Jen Moore, Boston Borough Council’s environment and sustainability officer, thanked all who had helped.

She said the low figure showed that, despite the perception of some, the town is becoming steadily cleaner each year.

She said some regular helpers had asked if they could be sent to ‘really grotty areas’ so they had something more to do.

More good news was that volunteer litter pickers reported much less rubbish to collect than in previous years.

When the clean-up began in 2008 a total of 10.6 tonnes of rubbish was lifted from Boston’s streets, verges, open spaces and waterways.

This year, with volunteer numbers staying up, the total had reduced to just 3.8 tonnes, demonstrating that the town is becoming cleaner.

Cigarette litter is now the biggest issue – in a sense the absence of more visible rubbish makes the thousands of cigarette ends show up even more.

Jen said: “There has to be a major change of mindset so far as cigarette ends are concerned. It has to be recognised that they are litter and smokers need to change their habits. They can no longer throw a cigarette end down without a care.”

Many have found that throwing down a cigarette end has cost them £75 – the fixed penalty for littering.

Since the council enlisted additional enforcement help from 3GS in April 2017, 812 fixed penalty fines have been issued – the majority for cigarette littering.