Derry City Council have refused to allocate a mechanical street sweeper to the Strathfoyle area – leaving one man responsible for cleaning the roads on his own.

By Alan Healy

alan@derrynews.net

The Derry News was contacted by residents of the area who claim they are now being neglected by council, as a mechanical sweeper has been assigned to numerous other areas in the Waterside.

However, no such vehicle currently operates in the Strathfoyle area, meaning the lone sweeper is forced to carry out the back breaking work manually.

Speaking to the Derry News at the weekend, one Strathfoyle resident, Paul Hughes explained that he doesn’t understand why his community isn’t receiving the same level of service as the rest of the Waterside.

“Almost every other housing estate across the city and waterside has a mechanical street sweeper at least once a week that keeps the roadsides clean,” he said.

“Just yesterday I decided to take a drive through Gobnascale, Killfennan and Nelson Drive and the quality of services that they appear to be receiving is over and above that of Strathfoyle in that all of their roadsides are clean.”

Paul also paid tribute the man currently charged with sweeping the estate, but added that is unfair he should be laden with such a volume of work.

“He does a fantastic job at keeping the streets clean, but he can’t be expected to sweep roadside dust,” he said.

Satisfactory

“This issue has been raised on a number of occasions by Strathfoyle Community Association with council but they have yet to receive a satisfactory reply,” he added.

 “On one occasion they were told that the machine often breaks down.” 

Speaking to the Derry News, a spokesperson for Derry City Council said no changes will be made to the Strathfoyle area with regards to street sweeping.

“Council believes the current cleaning arrangements for the Strathfoyle area are satisfactory and that arrangements for the mechanical sweeper are made if and when required,” the spokesperson said.