Street cleaning and litter
This page gives information about:
- Our street cleaning services
- What standards you can expect from us
- How to get more information
- How to comment or complain
Report a street cleaning problem
For problems with any of the following:
- Fly-tipping
- Flyposting
- Graffiti
- Abandoned vehicles
- Emptying of litter bins
- Cleaning of public toilets
- Street cleaning enquiries
Please contact us using the following options:
- Online: Report a street cleaning and waste collection problem
- Phone: Call customer services on 01524 582491
For flyposting issues relating to signs and notices on highways (for example on roundabouts or railings), please contact Lancashire County Council:
What can you expect?
- Our normal office hours are from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday (except on Bank Holidays)
- For urgent work you can contact us out of hours 365 days a year on 01524 67099
- We respond to all enquiries within five days of initial contact
- Where a council officer determines there is a risk to the public we will respond within a maximum of five hours of being notified
- We provide a range of services that aim to keep the roads, pavements and other areas of the District, that the Council is responsible for maintaining, clean and tidy
In doing this, we will:
- Clean all main shopping roads daily
- Clean areas with litter problems once each day Monday to Friday
- Clean residential roads on a scheduled basis
- Clean subways every other day (excluding Bank Holidays)
- Clean roadside gutters every day in the town centre, once a week on main shopping roads and to a scheduled basis on all other roads
- Ensure that a road or street is free of litter, dog fouling and other rubbish immediately after it has been cleaned
- Empty litter bins throughout the day in the town centre, at least once a day on all main roads and once a week in all other areas
During periods of heavy snow or ice, street or area cleansing may be stopped in order to grit the town centre and other busy areas.
Flyposting
Flyposting is the illegal and unauthorised placing of any sign, poster or sticker advertising or promoting an event or commercial activity on street signs, public utility street cabinets or on private premises.
Lancaster City Council is responsible for the removal of flyposting from council property on the public highway. Public utilities (eg telecom industry, public transport) are responsible for removing flyposting from their property.
For flyposting issues relating to signs and notices on highways (for example on roundabouts or railings), please contact Lancashire County Council:
It is the responsibility of the property owner to remove such items fixed to private property.
Fly-tipping
Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of rubbish on any land in the open air.
- Fly-tipping will be inspected and removed within 3 working days
- In all cases we will try and identify the person responsible for the dumping and ask them to remove it or charge them for the cost of removing it and where necessary prosecute.
Abandoned vehicles
- If you suspect a vehicle has been abandoned, please report it directly to the police on 0845 1 25 35 45.
- Once we have been informed by the police, we will attach an appropriate notice to the vehicle and remove it after this period has elapsed.
- If you think the vehicle is still being used (i.e. not abandoned) but is untaxed please report it straight to the DVLA on 0800 032 5202.
- Alternatively, you can fill in the online abandoned vehicle form
Public toilets
We will clean all public toilets at least once a day and maintain them in a safe condition, seven days a week and including bank holidays.
Graffiti
We remove graffiti from council buildings, structures, play areas and pavements.
Our general standards
We have a number of standards that all Lancaster City Council services aim to meet:
- We will answer letters within 10 working days. If you need a full reply, we will send you an acknowledgement and then send the full reply within an agreed period
- We will regularly seek your views on the services we provide and use this and other information to monitor how we are performing. We will also take action if we are not meeting our standards and set targets for improving our performance
Last updated: 29 January 2024