Westminster plan to force local businesses to clean pavements ruled illegal

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Westminster plan to force local businesses to clean pavements ruled illegal

By Westminster Labour ⋅ November 21, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment
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Westminster Council has been forced to scrap plans to save £14 million a year by making every resident and business clean up the front of their property after being told that the plans would be illegal. The plans, hatched at a secret meeting of the ‘High Level Group’ of Conservative Councillors and Officers on 23rd August and subsequently leaked to Labour Councillors, were aimed at making savings of “£14 million” if the council adopted “frontager obligation proposals whereby residents take responsibility for cleansing the areas outside their properties”.

The proposal were also included in the Council’s ‘consultation’ document, ‘A living city in tough times’, announced by the Leader of the Council, Colin Barrow, on 5th November which said: “We want to encourage greater local responsibility for street cleansing and will consider ways of getting people to take more care with the area in front of their home or business.”

Now, on 18th November the Council has backtracked and has told ‘Tribune’ that, “After looking at the proposals we decided that they were impractical and illegal. We would have required legislation to do it, we could not use bye-laws.”

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said: “The Conservatives are in total confusion on cleaning the streets of Westminster. The madcap ‘do-it-yourself-council’ proposal to stop cleaning the pavements and expect residents and business to do it, was never going to work, yet it was discussed at secret meetings and was even included in the Council’s cuts ‘consultation’ report. Now, two weeks later, they realize that it is all illegal. What sort of Council are the Conservatives running and why don’t they do some basic homework before launching these foolish plans?”

Ian Fletcher of the British Property Federation told ‘Tribune’: “With its transient population and complex property ownership, Westminster is about the worst place in the UK to trial this proposal.”

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