Published: Thursday, 22nd March 2018

The four giant vacuum cleaner type machines have arrived as part of our drive to have the cleanest streets in London.

The Royal Borough of Greenwich has invested more than £86K to buy the most advanced kit it possibly can to further enhance its street cleaning regimes for its town centres.

The investment has been made as part of the borough wide clean-up campaign. The Council is working hand-in-hand with businesses and residents to make its high streets and neighbourhood shopping centres places everyone can feel proud of.

The four high-tech MaxVac MV2000 machines are to be deployed in all the borough's high streets including those in Abbey Wood and Charlton in addition to Eltham, Greenwich and Woolwich town centres.

The new hi-tech kit will support the sterling work of the manual street sweepers to more efficiently ensure the streets and walkways are litter free. Cleaning the town centres, which is under taken continually from 6am and 8pm, is a major operation and across the whole borough the street sweepers collect more than 150 tonnes of litter a month from the streets and rubbish bins.

The machines are able to pick up rubbish from the smallest items including cigarette butts to glass bottles and can also hold more rubbish than the bins used by manual street cleaners. As powered by electricity the MaxVac machines will produce no dangerous emissions and they will be able to operate silently so will be ideal for early morning use.

A key part of the scheme is that they will provide training in using high-tech equipment and job opportunities in a scheme for long-term unemployed residents run by Greenwich Local Labour and Business (GLLaB).

This week the Council also launched the widening of its jet washing programme for all its town centres and neighbourhood shopping areas. The work uses a high pressure machine to blast away grime and chewing gum from the streets and is set to take around eight months to complete.

Councillor Denise Hyland, the Leader of the Council

"These machines will bring a major boost to the clean-up regimes for our town centres and play a key role in our campaign to have the cleanest streets in London. We are thrilled that many businesses and residents have joined forces with us and signed up to our community charters to help make the borough cleaner and tidier. There is a wealth of civic pride across Royal Greenwich which we want to build upon to ensure our high streets are places everyone can feel truly proud of."

Councillor Jackie Smith, Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Environment

"We are delighted that we have now got our four giant vacuum cleaners which will be able to give our high streets a really thorough deep clean. This is just one part of our borough wide campaign to make our town centres cleaner and tidier. We are determined to rid our streets of the blight from all forms of enviro-crime including littering, fly-tipping and graffiti."

Councillor Danny Thorpe, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Sustainability

"It is vital that our high streets are attractive and welcoming places so everyone can enjoy spending time in them for socialising, shopping or work. There is a raft of major regeneration schemes ongoing across Royal Greenwich and so it is hugely important that our town centres are maintained to the highest possible standards so businesses and residents can reap the maximum benefits from all this inward investment."

Councillor Sizwe James, Cabinet Member for Transport, Economy and Smart Cities

"These machines will provide fantastic training opportunities for many GLLAB recruits in the use of the latest cutting edge technology. Despite constrained financial resources we are determined to continually drive forward improvements to our street cleaning services by using equipment fit for the 21st century."