The British Cleaning Council (BCC) has recently read with interest about the street sweeper, Gary Churchman, from Lewisham who delights in doing his round every day to keep the borough's streets spick and span.
Gary starts work every day at 6.30 am sweeping several streets throughout Lewisham. He won Lewisham Council's Sweeper of the Year in 1993 and describes his work as both "brilliant and disheartening".
He speaks highly of the job satisfaction gained from leaving the streets in pristine condition and encouraging comments from members of the public which spur him on. He is sometimes discouraged by the attitude of litter droppers and believes that it is important that local people respect their living space.
As it happens, the London Borough of Lewisham is a finalist in the Clean Britain Awards run by the BCC. The Clean Britain Awards applaud the streets and public spaces of the cleanest cities, towns and districts in the UK. Lewisham has quite a good chance of winning the Borough category for its cleaning efforts and Ipswich is its only category rival.
Along with 150 other sweepers Gary cleans an average of seven streets daily, with every street in Lewisham borough being cleaned twice a week.
We'd like to wish Gary and the London Borough of Lewisham all the very best of luck in the Clean Britain Awards. Judges will be continuing to visit the borough until the final in March - so members of the public should back Gary if they would like to see Lewisham win.
Awards finals are taking place on Tuesday 13th March 2007 at the Cleaning Show, NEC, Birmingham. For further information our details can be found under 'Contact'.
