Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

How dirty is your town centre? Dundee, Broughty Ferry and Lochee rated

dundee litter
Cleaners and cooks are traditionally paid less than refuse collectors. Image: DC Thomson.

Litter. It’s a bugbear for us all.

While the blame unquestionably goes towards litterers, councils have a large part to play in tackling the issue.

From ensuring there are enough bins to getting street cleaners pounding the pavements, a tidy high street is largely down to how councils allocate resources.

dundee litter
A clean City Square.

I visited town centres across Tayside and Fife for a snapshot of how tidy – or not – they are ahead of next week’s local elections.

Here, I rate Dundee city centre and the high streets of Lochee and Broughty Ferry for litter.

Throughout the week, I will publish our findings from Angus, Fife and Perth & Kinross.

Dundee city centre

Date: April 7, morning

City Square and Reform street were looking clean.

But when scratching beneath the surface an uglier picture emerged.

Bags of empty glass bottles were inexplicably left next to a food bin at the Yeaman Shore car park.

dundee litter
A broken toilet near Commercial Street, Dundee.

A nearby lane was a midden with overflowing bins.

There also appears to have been an increase in graffiti recently. A consequence of lockdown?

But the most eye-opening find was a broken toilet in a shady lane off Commercial Street.

Stay classy, Dundee.

Verdict

No matter how clean an area appears at first, whenever you see a broken toilet all positive impressions are flushed down the pan. And the increase in graffiti really does bring the area down.

Must do better.

Lochee High Street

Date: April 7, morning

A few of the pubs could do with installing ashtrays outside.

Cigarette butts lay soggy at front doors.

dundee litter
Lochee High Street.

Aside from that, the High Street was quite clean and tidy.

But another issue is unkempt grassy areas, such as near the bus stop.

dundee litter
A messy Lochee.

It appears that if rubbish is blown into this area and gets stuck in foliage, then it is left there.

Verdict

Grassy areas are in bad need of some attention.

Broughty Ferry

Date: April 7, afternoon

The area suffers from the same problem as Lochee — if litter has been blown towards a grassy area, then that is its new home and it isn’t going anywhere.

dundee litter
The sight bringing down Broughty Ferry.

That’s a shame as it tarnished an otherwise spotless area.

Verdict

Generally good, but a little bit of extra attention is needed.

How many street cleaners are there in Dundee?

The number of staff employed by Dundee City Council whose main role is street cleaning has nearly halved in the last decade.

In 2012, there were 40 street cleaners. That included four part-time workers and three temporary staff.

The overall figure was still 40 in 2017 – although the make-up of temporary and part-time street cleaners was slightly different.

However, now there are only 22 dedicated street cleaners: 18 full-time and four part-time.

‘Pride in your city’

A Dundee City Council spokeswoman highlighted their ‘Take Pride in Your City‘ campaign, which encourages residents to “make a difference in our neighbourhoods, parks and open spaces”.

She said: “We aim to encourage individuals, groups and organisations across Dundee to help in the effort to prevent litter, dog fouling, fly-tipping and discarded chewing gum from blighting the city.

“There is a lot of great work being done in Dundee by groups and individuals but there is still more to do. We continue to highlight the good work already being done and hope to encourage more people to get involved in the campaign.

“To make a real difference and make our city a better place to live we all need to take pride in our city.”

Conversation