Autumn brings stunning scenes across Royal Greenwich as the trees turn red and gold but also creates a large volume of leaf fall on many roads.

From the beginning of October, dedicated 'leafing' teams will support the Council's regular street cleaners to help clear the pavements and major roads of fallen leaves.

'Leafing season' programme

The programme for the leafing season will include some temporary changes to the days certain roads are cleaned.

The leafing teams will focus on streets which have been identified as having the largest volume of leaf fall and these will be swept once a week. All other residential roads will be swept fortnightly during the ten week period due to the extra workload the season brings. Residents are asked to support the operation by not sweeping leaves from their gardens and driveways into the road or pavements.

With 14,500 trees growing across the borough the leaf clean-up is a major and complex task. The Council aims to remove the bulk of leaves that will fall in the next ten weeks as efficiently as possible but there will be times when there will be a large volume of leaf fall in some places. The operation is complex as it needs to be able to respond to the leaf fall of the borough's 120 different species of trees and the impact of weather conditions.

'Major challenge'

Cllr Jackie Smith, Cabinet member for Community Safety and Environment, said: "Greenwich looks glorious in the autumn as it has a high number of trees. However, it is a major challenge for our teams to keep the pavements and roads clear of leaves. The task is huge and last year our cleaning teams cleared up roughly 75 tonnes of leaves during the season.

"We have dedicated teams in place and we will be working to a schedule to target all of the roads in the borough. Due to the large amount of roads that will need sweeping there may be some disruption to our service and so we would appreciate residents' patience during the leafing season.

"We are asking residents to help us by not sweeping leaves from their gardens and driveways out onto the public highway, but to dispose of them as garden waste in their green top bins. The change to street cleaning days is only temporary and the service will return to normal once the leafing period is complete."