Street cleaning
Delivering excellent cleansing services is one of the council's main actions because it's important to you.
"I've phoned the customer service centre twice to say Ali deserves a medal the size of a frying pan! He drives one of those mechanical sweepers and he used to come round straight after the bin men on a Monday but people hadn't taken their bins so it was hard for him to get a proper run. So I suggested to the centre – and I know
the number off by heart – that he comes on Tuesdays instead and he does.
"I've stopped him a couple of times and asked him to help with rubbish and he's always such a gentleman! He does a marvellous job. I just wish people wouldn'’t leave rubbish and dog dirt in our back lanes!"
Maureen Young, Henry Nelson Street, South Shields
"I really want to do a good job and people like Mrs Young really care about the environment. I wish everyone did!
"I've done this job for 16 years and there's nothing more satisfying than looking back over your shoulder and seeing that you've cleaned a street or back lane really well.
"I take a real pride in what I do. Clean streets make a difference to how people feel about where they live."
Ali Mohammed, part of our Blitz-It team
Did you know?
- The customer contact centre takes around 260,000 calls each year
- We now have a chewing gum removal machine which can remove 600 pieces of gum every hour
- We fill 400,000 bags per year with litter from our streets
