Council to explore ‘mechanical’ option for street cleaning

With the £2.5 million scheme having provided a rejuvenated streetscape for the town centre, the local authority expressed an aim to safeguard the investment.

“The state of the streets and footpaths was something that was causing us concern when they were still in the contractor’s ownership,” said mayor of Carrickfergus Alderman Billy Ashe. “We want to look after the investment that has been made in the town centre; upgrading street maintenance was always part of the plan.

“Myself and other members of the council have noticed that there are various places where the streets are already quite stained with things like oil spills. A street sweeping machine would not be strong enough to tackle this kind of job, although it will be some kind of mechanical method we’d be looking at.

“There is a substantial budget for street maintenance, and although the cost to purchase one of these street cleaning machines may be quite expensive to begin with, we’d look at it as a long-term investment that would last a number of years.”

Officers in the council’s Cleansing Services department are currently looking at a number of specialised ‘street scrubber’ models to facilitate deep cleaning of pavements.

“At the moment we are looking at a number of different models and have had one or two demonstrations to see which is best. For the type of work that needs to be done to keep the streets clean, power washing isn’t feasible and this would also cause problems for shoppers and pedestrians with the water spray,” said Neil Patrick, Cleansing Operations Officer. “We need something that is not going to be a quick fix as there is a need for the ongoing upkeep of the town centre.”