A community scheme to clean up parts of Basingstoke has been praised by a councillor who campaigned to get it started.
The two-week scheme to clean up Oakridge was launched by residents and staff from Sentinel Housing Association and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.
Norden councillor Paul Harvey, said the clean-up was a step in the right direction, but work needs to be done to ensure the area remains uncluttered by rubbish.
The scheme, which ends tomorrow (Friday), has seen volunteers, supported by six Sentinel staff and members of the borough council, tackle 14 roads in Oakridge.
From their base in Oakridge Hall, the street care teams cleared litter, fly-tipping, graffiti and trimmed overgrown hedges.
Cllr Harvey said: “The cleaning is exceptional and it is a real testament to all those that have put their hearts into it.
“It is great that the work has gone ahead. It was work we welcome and the men and women and teams that are out on the streets are doing a brilliant job and we are 100 per cent behind them.”
At the end of the 11-day litter blitz, the borough council, residents and housing associations will sign a Neighbour Charter setting standards to ensure the cleansed areas remain tidy.
Cllr Harvey continued: “For example, the charter will say that the grass has to be cut so many times a year and by whom. It will outline what needs to be done to ensure streets, walls, hedges and buildings are kept to a good condition.
“It is okay to do a two-week blitz of cleaning, but in six, 12 or 18 months time we would still want the standard to be up there, and the charter is going to help us do that.
“The charter will be a written agreement that lets residents hold their organisations to account and get them to act if they are failing.”
Cllr Harvey said the charter will cap a two-year campaign to clean up areas of Basingstoke. He said the decline in standards was due to different organisations failing to work together.
And he added: “We knew the owners of the land in Oakridge were not working together, but were in conflict with each other.”
The neighbourhood charter will be drafted after the clean-up and is scheduled to be rolled out to residents by Christmas.
