News / Cleanliness up, costs down
SHETLAND’s street cleanliness score has improved over the last five years, despite the council reducing its costs for cleaning by nearly a half.
Shetland Islands Council’s environmental services manager William Spence said this is down to having less staff and using “new and better equipment”.
Figures published by Audit Scotland this week as part of a study into local government challenges showed that Shetland had an above average cleanliness score of 96 per cent in 2015/16.
This is a slight increase from 2010/11, although the score dipped to below 90 per cent in 2014/15.
Data shows that the SIC has been spending 49.2 per cent less on street cleaning per 1,000 people than it did five years ago, with the outlay now around £12,500 a year.
In 2010/11, however, the cost was one of the highest in Scotland at around £25,000 per annum.
Spence said he expects a further reduction in cost for the year 2016/17.
“We have introduced a vacuum machine called a Glutton which is much more efficient than litterpicking with pickers and barrows,” he said.
“The Glutton is battery powered and charged up every second day, making it an environmentally friendly machine.”
Last year the council invested in a new weed killing system which uses hot water and Spence said this has also reduced expenditure.
“This reduces the high cost of weed killing materials and is much friendlier to the environment,” he said. “We also have a new weed ripping machine which will reduce time in removing weed instead of using hoes.”
The street cleanliness score is measured through inspections of streets and land councils are responsible for.
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