The streets of Richmondshire are set to get a deep clean.
A new £20,000 ‘glutton’ machine has been rolled out as part of a district council target to improve day to day street cleaning.
The machine not only picks up street waste it also deep cleans, getting into even the smallest recesses that in the past have been hard to keep clean.
According to Councillor Phillip Wicks “This equipment makes it easier for our operatives to clean problem issues such as dog mess, pigeon droppings, litter, cigarette butts, leaves in leafing season, grease and encrusted dirt from pavements, litter and dog bins, bring bank sites and public toilets,”
“It brings with it significant time savings for staff. They can work more effectively, covering larger areas much faster than traditional methods. And that will bring with it more pride in our streets – if they are cleaner the public are less likely to litter them.”
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The council’s waste team had been looking at ways to improve efficiency and quality of the street cleansing service, as well as how to reduce the vehicle fuel and mileage travelled by operatives.
Vehicles have been used to move hand-held equipment such as blowers, vacuums, brushes and shovels around the district.
However the new electric vacuum has all the equipment needed on board and therefore operatives simply need to park up and immediately begin to use the new machine.
“This machine is 100% electric and has 0% CO2 emissions. It picks up all urban waste and cleans and disinfects all surfaces which helps to combat viruses, bacteria and fungi,” added Cllr Wicks.
“It can cope with the narrow streets, cobblestones and pathways across Richmondshire and will cut the amount of time manually collecting waste and litter, leaving us with a cleaner, greener district.”