Can Eastbourne please get its act together?

We have just returned from Ireland after a short stay in a small village in County Mayo and noticed that the village has a Clean Village Policy where the villagers meet to clean up the mess created by careless dropping of litter.

The village square has clean stainless steel bins and seating nicely painted.

On return to Eastbourne town we walked out of the station and was confronted by somebody sitting begging, drunks sitting on the pavement on Banks Corner, all the filthy refuse bins full to the brim with one pulled out of its fixings, and seating looking like it has not be cleaned or painted for years in fact looked rotten in places.

In recent editions of the paper the council representative quoted the state of the seating would be addressed as a priority!

I remember that McDonalds was initially refused planning permission due to concerns over litter but this was overcome by the company arranging a cleaning team of young girls and boys dressed in cream/brown lovely presented uniforms going around the town cleaning up.

This clearly only lasted a short period , I think about three months.

It seems many people of all ages are unimpressed with the Beacon both in appearance and vacant shops together with general state of the town so the Herald could have a referendum to see what would help the town recover some level of basic order. In last week’s paper the Environment Agency was asking for sea defence ideas (they are paid to be experts), also readers asked to complete a survey for the police commissioner on what people feel about town safety (more experts).

What has happened to the town wardens? They seemed a brilliant idea but clearly not working. The beaches are mainly cleaned by volunteers so this may be the way forward for the townscape.

But I think the likes of McDonalds, KFC, and other high profile takeaways should carry a levy on their turnover to provide cleaners or take responsibility for an element of cleaning and as an incentive they are allowed to advertise the act.

The latest excuse for disarray is the Covid factor which whilst very serious has become a platform for avoiding responsibility, so the council and paid agencies need to get their acts together.