Street Cleansing

 Online services

• report litter
• graffiti
• fly tipping
• dog fouling
• weeds

Our Responsibility

No one wants to live, work or visit a borough where rubbish is left on the pavement, fly posting covers street furniture and where graffiti is visible. Here in Poole we provide a range of services committed to maintaining our streets and making the borough a more attractive place to live.

We have a responsibility for keeping Poole's streets clean, employing over 50 members of staff and utilising innovative high tech equipment to maintain the borough at an acceptable standard.

We regularly cleanse, according to need, approximately 300 miles of public roads and footpaths and 339 hectares of open spaces including Poole's beaches of litter, dog fouling and detritus. Streets are swept between 06:30 & 22:00 throughout the Summer and 06:30 & 17:30 throughout Winter seven days a week.

We closely monitor the standard of street cleansing in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act and Government National Indicator 195 and any land that does not reach an acceptable standard is rectified.

Please note: Cleansing of 'main roads' e.g. dual carriageways requires us by law to abide by the Chapter 8 Traffic Signs Manual 2006. This refers to the setting up of traffic management to ensure the safety of operatives working in an environment where they are likely to encounter vehicles moving at speed. This involves the use of specialist resources which due to high demand are programmed in advance as part of an annual cleansing plan 

As such any requests for additional cleansing of the following roads may be subject to unavoidable delay due to the scheduling of resources. We will of course endevour to respond as soon as operationally possible.

Classified Roads
A35 Holes Bay
Upton Road (A35)
Holes Bay Road (A350)
Dorset Way (A3049)
Canford Way (A3049)
Ringwood Road (A3048)
Waterloo Road (A349)
Wimborne Bypass (small section A31 + A349)
Arrowsmith Lane
Broadstone Way (A349)

We provide over 1000 litter/recycling and dog bins monitoring their emptying to ensure that they do not overflow.

Weed Treatment
 We provide a dedicated weed treatment team who treat weeds on highway land once a year  depending on weed regrowth with an approved weed killer and manual hoeing techniques.

EU legislative changes restrict  the Council to only 'spot treatment' of weeds as they become evident, we are no longer able to blanket spray areas to restrict weed growth.

Recent mild Winters are providing excellent conditions for extended weed growth within the Borough, and extended periods of wet weather can reduce the number of suitable days available for successful weed treatment application. Every effort is made to ensure visible weeds are treated within our programmed activities and residents can support this work by removing weeds from boundary walls wherever possible.

 We remove and restore Council owned land affected by fly tipping,  fly posting, graffiti and chewing gum.

Although the Council does not have a duty to cleanse privately owned land, we do have have powers to request and furthermore insist that a landowner cleans an area which is heavily littered or could give rise to an infestation of rodents. In certain circumstances the Council's enforcement powers do include the ability to enter and cleanse private land and recharge the costs of cleansing and administration.

What you can do

If you have a hedge outside your property, make sure it does not obstruct or overhang any footpaths:

overgrown hedges outside houses are a hazard to people walking by and an obstruction to our staff trying to clean pavements. Note: High hedges can also be a nuisance.

If you have a gravel driveway, make sure it does not encroach onto the public highway:

loose gravel is a hazard to people using the footpath and an additional pressure on the cleansing service.

Clean up your dog's mess:

dog owners who fail to clean up after their pets can receive a fixed penalty notice.

Whether you are eating on the go, or cleaning out your pockets on the way to work, find the nearest litter bin and use it! Litter is dangerous to pets and wildlife, encourages pests such as rats and spoils the appearance of the borough. If you are caught littering you could receive a fixed penalty notice.

Please report it to us if you notice an area affected by graffiti, fly posting or fly tipping. If you see a litter bin that has been damaged or hasn't been emptied please use our report it page.