Clean Sweep

I've recently discovered that the state of our streets and towns has been cited by marketing experts as the major block on "selling" Folkestone and Hythe. The litter our our streets, the overflowing bins, and the state of the town centre at night mean that those marketing experts feel its not even worth trying to get people to come here. Their prognosis is simple - get and keep Shepway clean and tidy - all the time. Make people like where they live, and want it to succeed. From there, the marketing has a chance.

I couldn't agree more. The Council will claim that things have got better in the last few weeks (and they had too - Folkestone was festering at times this summer) but no-one could really claim that in general, our area is kept clean enough.

A clean Shepway can then be properly promoted as a good place to come to.

More tourists and businesses will then come, and come back. There will be more money in the area, and a virtuous cycle develops. The same has happened in lots of other areas that previously had real image problems - Liverpool, Manchester and Cardiff are obvious examples.

20 years ago, few people would have dreamed of going to Cardiff for a city break, and now its one of the hottest destinations in the country - and not even Doctor Who could have done that without the basics in place. And the basics start by making sure that the city is as clean as possible - all the time.

We need a simple focus on making all our streets clean and tidy. Start by sweeping them - properly - more often. Have a proper street cleaning schedule - and publish it so people know when to expect their street will be cleaned. Have more litter bins - and empty them, and clean them. Make it really easy for residents to report and litter problem, and get it sorted fast, and tell people when you've done it. Get graffiti cleaned up fast, and get Council Officers out on the streets each week looking for problem to be resolved, and simple ways the town can be improved.

And when it's clean, then people will come. How hard can it be?