Department to Clean Up Scotland

"You take the high road and I'll take the low road and I'll sit in this flooded lay-by before you!"

Tidy towns and cities encourage people to come into them in the first place. Cleanliness improves footfall, and helps tourism; while litter and uncollected bins bring the entire vibe crashing down!

Annual autumn leaves turn to mud on the pavements and gutters which, in some cases, are not cleared for years, and then they block the drains. The level of litter on road and motorway verges – even mud encroaching onto the motorway – is shocking. Metal A-frames, sandbags and cones lie deserted, forever it seems.

Even our rural tourist attractions are blighted by unkempt, dirty, often-flooded lay-bys.

We become desensitised to it, and it becomes normalised. But it should not be this way!

A new National Department to Clean Up Scotland

Yet this dismal scene represents an employment opportunity, calling out for massive investment.

Whether its litter, or autumn leaves, it's a constant daily job – which is good as far as sustainable long-term employment is concerned.

We are definitely not talking here about "making the unemployed work for their benefits". No, we're speaking about a properly funded national project to clean up the country and restore a sense of civic duty and pride.

We're speaking about creating proper jobs for people to maintain the liveability of our country!

This will require the establishment of a government department whose sole job is to keep the place clean, and which can involve public and private enterprise, as appropriate.

Presently, councils can employ both their own people, and can also contract out to private companies to address these matters. Whatever they are doing though, it is clearly insufficient!

So let's institute a national employment project to transform road and motorway verges, slip roads and lay-bys into pristine attractive areas that we can be proud of, and which help nature to bloom – which impress tourists, and which help the rest of us to relax and enjoy our country.

It could be under the control of a new department of "Transport Scotland" or England's "National Highways". Or it could be Stand-Alone, or somehow integrated into Councils. But its daily remit must be just Keeping the Place Clean.

Objections will include "that's the Council's job", but the fact is the Council is not doing it (or not able to do it) sufficiently.

SOME MORE IDEAS to KEEP SCOTLAND TIDY:

• Let's bring back local, daily, on-foot Street Cleaners for a start. They can also spot developing problems – such as blocked drains – and report them.

• Provide easily-accessible Recycling Facilities – which may require creating more such facilities. To an extent, this will mitigate fly-tipping.

• Increase CCTV cameras in areas of regular fly-tipping in order to ensure swift and effective enforcement action.

• Make it easier to report litter and fly tipping problems. Often it can be difficult to find out who to contact. Info on council websites can be difficult to find. In this regard, QR codes on bins, park entrances, and other relevant areas can help us to directly report to the appropriate office.

• Road contactors should have a statutory duty to clear up their stuff or face substantial fines.

• Drivers caught littering to be penalised with penalty points on the licence.

• Encourage Litter Awareness as part of the School Curriculum. Some schools might even be suitably placed to take children out litter picking for an afternoon each term as part of a civic duties and responsibilities course. 

AND LET'S ALL PLAY OUR PART

Virtually nobody reports problems, even though most people have at least 3 councillors in their ward. This "leave it to someone else" attitude is another reason why the place is in a mess.

Have your own go-to Councillor which you can contact – with a simple email – asking for a drain to be cleared, or an area to be cleaned. It has been our positive experience that Glasgow City Council, for example, will respond relatively quickly and effectively to reports of blocked drains, and muddied footpaths.