It’s a dirty job but someone’s got to do it. The well-known expression is the perfect description of one of the most crucial, but unsung, jobs in London.
But for Kensington and Chelsea’s street cleaning teams, though they have to deal with everything from vomit and the aftermath of nasty car crashes, to oil spills and graffiti, it’s far from a thankless task.
Alan Gray, 43, who has been covering Kensington and Chelsea for the utility company SUEZ for 20 years, said their hard work doesn’t go unnoticed: “You do get a lot of people thanking you, from residents to visitors, because they can see the effort you’re putting in to try to keep the borough clean and make it a better place to live in.”
While the more grim aspects of the job, such as clearing up the contents of someone’s stomach after a heavy night out, may not sound appealing, there is a certain satisfaction that comes with the job.
Alan said: “It’s quite fulfilling but when you get a dirty pavement and start to clean the dirty away, it can be quite therapeutic.”
Alan, who is SUEZ’s contract manager for Kensington and Chelsea Council, says his crew has had to develop thick skins.
They’ve been called out to car accidents and crime scenes where they’ve had to remove blood and other remains away. And working around drunk people late at night can lead to occasional verbal abuse. “Some incidents are not particularly nice to clean up sometimes, especially if there has been a road incident,” Alan admitted.
The dedicated team of eight work eight-hour shifts to cover most hours of the day.
Day shifters work 5am to 1pm while those on night shift kick off at midnight and go through till 8am.
For Richard Fitzgerald, 63, and Steve Coggins, 46, both shifts have their pros and cons. Night shifts mean a distorted sleep pattern and cleaning up more “sick” or facing abuse, but it also means you can get through the workload more easily as fewer people are out and about after 1am.
Describing his day shift on Exhibition Road on Monday, July 24, Steve said the job was moving slowly “because you have all these pedestrians”. ‘Z Zones’, as they are known, are main roads and areas with high footfall. Often the most in need of a good clean up, they’re also the hardest to get done.
Alan added: “Between 10pm and 1am we have a lot of people coming out of nights-out so the foot traffic is heavier than you expect.
“After 1am, the footfall dies down and you can surge on.
“The day shift is different. If we’ve got a busy road and there’s a lot of footfall, we might break and then move our efforts somewhere else so we’re a lot more productive.
“We’d probably go back to it the next day, earlier, so we can get more work done.”
Despite doing such a vital job on behalf of the council, Alan and his team face the same major problem many residents do.
He explained: “As silly as this sounds, but as cars are getting bigger in size and as more go on the road, it makes it harder for us to find a parking spot.”
In terms of the cleaning process, he said engine oil is one of the hardest things to clean up, and it often spills during a crash.
Alan said: “It was a few years ago, we had quite the oil stain and what happens with an oil spill is that you need to pour gravel over it get rid of it. Oil leaves staining and it can be a laborious job cleaning it off. It’s quite a long process, too.”
He said graffiti on pavements was “the worst” because the paint can sometimes seep into the concrete and leave a shadow after cleaning.
The seasoned operator also praised the council’s £865,000 year-long blitz to tidy up streets in the borough.
Known as the ‘Grime Busters’, this crew is tasked with going beyond day-to-day cleaning and maintenance.
The funds also go towards helping enforcement officers tackle begging, illegal street trading, littering and idling engines.
The Grime Busters drive around in a van loaded with a 250-litre water tank and jet spray, which can be extended 60m, according to Alan. He says the tank can last up to five hours and needs filling once or twice during a shift – depending on the jobs at hand.
Alan thinks it’s a great idea the council is pouring more money into street cleaning and says it’s making his team more productive.
He said: “It’s giving us more resources. We now have two extra street washing vehicles and it’s employing more people. It’s giving four people a job. It means we can make the borough a nicer place to live in.”
Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBCK) councillor Cem Kemahli said the scheme may be extended beyond July 2024, when it is set to end, depending on the “quantum of resources” the council has available.
He stressed the council will still carry out essential street cleaning works regardless.
Cllr Kemahli, the lead member for planning, place and environment, said money for the project had come from the council’s £1m pot of cash for “priority areas”, which RBKC pulled together through budget savings.
He said the funds would go towards keeping streets like Exhibition Road in South Kensington as “one of the best in the country”.
He claims the road, which is home to the Natural History Museum, the V&A and Imperial College, has more people passing through it than Heathrow’s Terminal 5.
Figures released by Transport for London (TfL) and Heathrow Airport also show South Kensington Underground station had 300,000 more visitors come through its entries and exits than Heathrow Terminal 5 in 2021.
According to Heathrow Airport’s website, 10.5m passengers travelled through Terminal 5. Data released by TfL shows 10.8m people passed through South Kensington station.
Cllr Kemahli said: “We have a duty to make sure the public realm is fantastic. That means spending money to make them fantastic. It’s not at the detriment to our services, it’s in addition to it.”
When the programme launched earlier this month, he said crews would be able to reach “every corner” of the borough.
He said: “We’re fortunate to have incredibly dedicated, hard-working street operatives through our SUEZ contracts.
“We know our residents have high expectations for the public realm and cleanliness and we’re determined to live up to those expectations.”
Earlier this month, he said the Grime Busters would go “above and beyond” to tackle fly-tipping, greasy pavements and graffiti.
