Street cleaning in Purbeck

It is estimated that £540 million is spent by local authorities in England every year on street cleaning and litter clearance.

Street cleansing is the removal of grit, mud, litter, grease, debris and leaf fall from adopted highways. This includes the removal of litter from verges and footways alongside adopted highways, footways generally mean tarmac paths that are independent of a road such as those running through housing estates.

Report it online

You can report street litter online directly to Purbeck District Council.

The law

There is no legal requirement for a local authority to clean roads at any particular frequency although, as s 'duty holder' under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, we do have to ensure that roads and open spaces under our control are cleaned if they become badly littered. We focus more on the standard of cleanliness rather than the frequency, therefore the programme of sweeping concentrates on those areas which have the most pedestrian or vehicle traffic.

This allows us to target the most polluted areas of the District, this balances our resources so we can respond to complaints and deal with litter hotspots.

Zoning and grading

Purbeck District Council is divided into zones, which apply to the main land use of that particular area. Although litter is unacceptable anywhere in the District, the time that the council or other Duty Holder has to restore a littered area to a reasonable condition varies according to its zone and the level of littering.

The Zones, Grades and response times are set out in Government's Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse. Land is categorised as one of four grades according to the amount of litter that is present as follows:

• Grade A – area is free from litter

• Grade B – not much litter apart from a few small items

• Grade C – quite a lot of litter with small build-ups

• Grade D – a lot of litter with big build-ups.

Acceptable grades for the level of cleanliness are generally either A or B. If a complaint is received about litter, the time within which the council or other Duty Holder should restore the area to a grade after cleansing is prescribed in the table below.

The time given at the end of each row is the time within which the area has to be returned to the acceptable standard of cleanliness. For example, if an area of the town centre is a zone 1 and it is land for which the council is responsible and has fallen to grade D, we have 1 hour to return it to grade A.

• Educational establishments

• The Railway Authority

• Crown authorities

• Dorset County Council

For more information on zoning and grading please visit  DEFRA (opens in a new window) .

• Frequently Asked Questions

  What is litter? The word 'Litter' is a very broad term and is fairly non-specific. Generally litter can often be described as something related to smoking, eating and drinking, which is improperly discarded.

• Dorset Waste Partnership (Purbeck)
  Name: Dorset Waste Partnership (Purbeck)
  Email: envservices@purbeck-dc.gov.uk
  Tel: 01929 557279
  Fax: 01929 557351
  Full details for Dorset Waste Partnership (Purbeck)