Martin Rossignaud stated (July 27) that the root cause of the dirt in Sliema is mixed waste bags strewn on the streets and that the solution is to collect these bags every day.
The council is quite proud to have a group of energetic councillors and permanent staff working together without useless bickering- Paul Radmilli, Councillor, Sliema
The council disagrees for two reasons. According to monthly statistics, Sliema is among the top localities when it comes to waste being separated at source by residents.
If we introduce a system of mixed waste collection (black bags) on the days (Tuesdays and Fridays) when the grey bag recyclable waste is collected we risk confusing people who will no longer bother to separate their waste and may end up placing all their waste in the same black bag.
Secondly, in the first of a series of meetings held with the current contractor for the collection of mixed waste the council was informed that on Mondays the amount of black bags collected is the lowest, which means there is no real demand for a Sunday collection.
The new Sliema council believes the way to address the issue of black bags is to introduce an evening collection, as most people are not at home during the current collection time and an evening collection will have less of an impact on traffic.
The council will be issuing a tender for this new collection time in the coming months and will implement this system over a trial period of six months.
Another way the council is concretely addressing this issue is by holding meetings with the administrators and owners of large apartment blocks to provide skips inside the blocks to avoid having the pavements in front of them filled with a large amount of garbage from these blocks.
The council has held a series of meetings with the contractor for the sweeping of streets and has proposed changes in the frequency of the sweeping as well as washing the promenade and stairs leading to the coastline; these suggestions were taken on board.
The council recognises that more needs to be done in this respect and is looking into long-term solutions which will take time to implement in view of tendering procedures.
The council has also held meetings with the warden service and is paying for an extra number of hours to fine residents placing waste in Sliema streets.
We will shortly publish statistics on the amount of fines issued; many of those fined are local residents and not foreigners.
The council does not have wardens permanently employed in its set-up, but has to work with the pool of wardens allocated to the region to which Sliema belongs.
The new council immediately realised that this roster does not fully meet the requirements of our locality and has paid for extra services which are bearing fruit, as the amount of fines being issued for littering is unprecedented.
From next month the council will be gradually introducing a weekly door-to-door collection of glass to increase the amount of waste being separated at source.
We expected Mr Rossignaud to appeal to residents and pedestrians to stop littering Sliema streets rather than unfairly criticise the targeted clean- up days in which, together with the Cleansing Services Directorate, we install new bins and provide a bulky refuse service to residents, which he describes as “inappropriate”.
We will completely dismiss this suggestion and carry on with the targeted clean-up days.
Sliema councillors (who represent three parties) unanimously agreed on the concrete reforms in this area and the council is quite proud to have a group of energetic councillors and permanent staff working together without useless bickering.
While recognising that there is more to do, we will now leave it up to your readers to judge whether the new council “does not seem to have done much”, as Mr Rossignaud claims.