Getting Cleaner with Southwark Cleaning The 2002 MORI resident's survey showed that most people wanted us to make cleaning up Southwark a priority. In response, we brought all street-cleaning services in-house, increased the street cleaning workforce from 450 to 700 and created 'Southwark Cleaning'. The service was set up in just three months and given the task of making Southwark's streets among the cleanest in London.
Since our team hit the streets in April 2003, standards have risen dramatically
- 97 percent of our roads are now classed as clean compared to 71 percent before 'Southwark Cleaning' was formed
- 97 percent of reported fly tips are now cleared in 24 hours compared to less than 84 percent in 2003
- 97 percent of graffiti reported to us is cleared within 24 hours as opposed to just 79 percent in 2003
- This year, external inspectors judged Southwark to be the fourth cleanest London Borough
Cleaner Southwark at a glance
March 2003
- 125 Street Cleaners
- 290 Estate Cleaners
- 40 Gardeners
- Five Estate Fly Tip Lorries
- Six Street Fly Tip Lorries
- Three Graffiti Teams
- 71 percent of road 'clean'
- Poor fly tip removal
- 31 percent customer satisfaction
Compared to
March 2005
- 213 Street Cleaners
- 420 Estate Cleaners
- 60 Gardeners
- 16 Estate Fly Tip Lorries
- 18 Street Fly Tip Lorries
- Eight Graffiti Teams
- 97 percent of roads 'clean'
- Excellent fly tip removal
- 43 percent customer satisfaction
How does the service work? 
All Southwark roads have been categorised according to how busy they are and entered onto a cleaning schedule so they can be managed more effectively. We've also introduced set response times for specific types of problems, for example
- Fly Tips, removed within 24 hours of being reported
- Graffiti, Racist/Obscene, removed within four working hours
- Graffiti, Standard, removed within 24 hours of being reported
Street cleaning
Southwark Cleaning are currently looking at how to improve street cleaning to an even higher standard and are looking at using a different method of street cleaning.
Unfortunately the street service search has been suspended temporarily whilst we collate a brand new schedule.
We are sorry for any inconveniance this may cause.
Estate cleaning
We've introduced a regular cleaning schedule to keep our estates spotless
- General Areas, swept daily
- Stairs, swept daily and washed twice per week
- Lifts, swept and washed daily
- Balconies, swept daily and washed twice per week
- Bin Chambers, swept daily and washed weekly
- Fly tips, removed constantly
Grounds maintenance
- Grass, cut every two weeks
- Shrub beds, maintained monthly
- Litter, picked daily
- Seasonal works as appropriate dependant on species
 Our targets for 2005 to 2006
- 98 percent of inspected roads to to be classed as 'clean' next year
- Fly tip removal will improve to 97 percent in 2005/2006
- Graffiti removal will improve to 97 percent in 2005/2006
- BVPI 199 target of 20 for 2005/2006
Contact us
Southwark cleaning team
Tel: 020 7525 2000
environment@southwark.gov.uk
Manor Place Depot
30-34 Penrose Street
London
SE17 3DW |