We’ll look at problem of litter in Castlefield

RE: Town Hall Chiefs Need to Clean Up Castlefield (Viewpoints, July 6).

As one of the three Manchester City Centre ward councillors I represent Castlefield. I also live there.

I am very disappointed to hear that Mr Shaffer’s otherwise excellent tour experience was marred by inadequate litter clearance. Manchester City Council does care for the area, in fact we purchased 700 brand new ‘bee bins’ just two years ago, and are allocating considerable extra funds to manage a range of city centre issues.

There are a number of spots in the city centre which become extremely busy in good weather, such as last Sunday; in these circumstances our contractors can find it difficult to keep up with demand. Last weekend there were large-scale events in Castlefield Basin too, which added to pressure on resources. Obviously there are plans in place for a flexible response and I will be asking for a report on what went wrong in this case.

The community living in Castlefield is very proud of the area and has a successful and active community group, Castlefield Forum. They’ve organised planting, updated the noticeboards and are fundraising for a refurbishment of the gardens in between the Liverpool Road pubs, The Oxnoble and The White Lion. They carry out regular clean-ups in the area. There is also a Friends group – FoR9 – doing the same for The Rochdale Canal.

Anyone who is interested can find these groups via a quick google, or by emailing me cllr.j.davies@manchester.gov.uk

If Mr Shaffer could let me have further details of the area in Castlefield most affected I would be very grateful.

Joan Davies, Labour Councillor for Manchester City Centre