£7.2m council investment into Cleaner Greener Streets

A fleet of Mobile Household Recycling Centres (MHRCs) is set to roll out on the streets of Birmingham as part of the council’s effort to achieve cleaner streets.

The four MHRCs will each feature three vehicles: a regular refuse collection vehicle for waste with no other use, a van for taking away items that can be reused by charities and a wagon with multiple compartments, enabling people to drop off waste for recycling by material type – just like at a conventional HRC.

Dates for the services will be announced in the near future, with the MHRCs initially being deployed in areas that rank highly in the fly-tipping league table, poorly on environmental cleanliness surveys, and low for take-up of the council’s paid-for bulky waste services.

During the pilot project, which represents £1.4m of a £7.2m investment in street scene services, each of the council’s 69 wards will receive at least one visit from a MHRC in the next year. An assessment will then be carried out to decide if the scheme should continue, be modified or other options pursued.

Cllr Ian Ward, leader of Birmingham City Council, said: ‘Cleaner, greener, streets are an understandable expectation of the people of Birmingham.

‘We’re grateful for the work done by residents to keep their areas clean, and this is all about the council doing everything it can to play its part in delivering on one of the key priorities for people in this city.

‘That’s why we have assembled a bold programme of activity, supported by investment, to tackle some long-term and deep-rooted issues affecting our neighbourhoods.’

Other projects and initiatives set to be rolled out in the year ahead includes new mobile CCTV camera technology to detect fly-tipping, the launch of a Crimewatch-style YouTube series to help the council trace waste crime culprits, the deployment of more crews to clear dumped rubbish and graffiti as well as a renewed offer of support to community groups doing their bit to make Birmingham’s streets cleaner and greener.

Cllr John O’Shea, cabinet member for street scene and parks, added: ‘Since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic we have seen weekly fly-tipping case numbers increase significantly.

‘In a typical week just before the global health crisis, we were receiving 500-600 reports of dumped rubbish. Fast forward to the present day and we now regularly get more than 800 reports a week.

‘But we know clean streets have been a key priority for people much longer than this. The Mobile HRCs will enable us to do something different and provide options for households in areas of greatest need – and we will also be able to reach parts of the city that are not close to our regular HRCs.

‘We are open to trialling new innovations as we are determined to deliver on the wishes of residents and businesses, and this will be just one of many things we will be introducing in the coming months to make our shared environment a better place for everyone.’

Photo Credit – Bruno Martins