Closed
Gravesend slip roads off and on to the A2
Sent to National Highways less than a minute later. FixMyStreet ref: 6998398.
Litter everywhere on slip roads and the main A2 carriageway generally.
We are unfortunately a very dirty nation and such sights must horrify overseas visitors who would not tolerate such conditions at home!
Why should we?
Action to clear litter on a continuous basis urgent and most important to dissuade further littering.
Inspections and clearing of litter should be undertaken not less than weekly. Reasonable people will not tolerate waiting 28 days for identified problem area to be visited and cleared!
Cameras at worst locations and signs warning of significant fines for littering offenders ( number plate recognition) should be introduced and prominently displayed.
Action required!
Updates
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Thank you for your report
We appreciate how frustrating it is to see discarded litter along the road whilst travelling on our network, and I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you, and we've raised this this issue with our local team.
We regard litter as a significant issue, and we share your concerns about the amount of rubbish discarded on our roads.
We’ve a wide road network across the south of England and are required to concentrate our efforts on prioritising areas with the heaviest amount of litter in accordance with the Defra Code of Practice system (Grades A to D).
Our normal litter maintenance programme will run periodically twice a year. In addition to this we’ll carry out litter inspections along the A2 and M2 in accordance with the Defra Code of Practice and we’ll raise additional jobs to instruct our maintenance partners to litter pick sections of our network that are identified as a priority first.
Litter picks often require lane closures, which are disruptive to traffic flow. To help reduce the frequency of this disruption, where we can, we usually combine our reactive litter picks with other maintenance work which can result in what appears to be a delayed response. This may cause litter to be left on the roadside for longer periods than we’d like.
I hope you can understand that clearing rubbish is very costly and is an ongoing challenge across our network, and any designated funds we have must be utilised across a variety of priorities to manage our network.
Depending on the road, location, or junction, it may take up to 3 months or longer to get the necessary authority to close a road or slip road as we may need the approval of the local authorities to use their roads to implement diversions. Without implementing diversions to close some slip roads, our maintenance partners can’t safely clear these areas.
As we aren’t an enforcement agency, we’re working proactively with local councils to understand how we can collaboratively address these issues and target the offenders with potential prosecutions by the council where possible. We also work with Defra and other organisations like Keep Britain Tidy, and the Campaign to Protect Rural England to raise public awareness of the dangers and costs associated with litter. Our overall approach for tackling litter is set out in our litter strategy. This outlines our goals and initiatives, supporting our vision of a network predominantly free from litter, without compromising safety.
Again, we apologise for any inconvenience or frustration litter along the A2 and M2 may have caused you, and we’ll continue to monitor the area in accordance with the Defra Code of Practice and raise any additional work outside of our normal cyclic maintenance to clear litter where possible.
Kind Regards
National Highways
-
Thank you for your report
We appreciate how frustrating it is to see discarded litter along the road whilst travelling on our network, and I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you, and we've raised this this issue with our local team.
We regard litter as a significant issue, and we share your concerns about the amount of rubbish discarded on our roads.
We’ve a wide road network across the south of England and are required to concentrate our efforts on prioritising areas with the heaviest amount of litter in accordance with the Defra Code of Practice system (Grades A to D).
Our normal litter maintenance programme will run periodically twice a year. In addition to this we’ll carry out litter inspections along the A2 and M2 in accordance with the Defra Code of Practice and we’ll raise additional jobs to instruct our maintenance partners to litter pick sections of our network that are identified as a priority first.
Litter picks often require lane closures, which are disruptive to traffic flow. To help reduce the frequency of this disruption, where we can, we usually combine our reactive litter picks with other maintenance work which can result in what appears to be a delayed response. This may cause litter to be left on the roadside for longer periods than we’d like.
I hope you can understand that clearing rubbish is very costly and is an ongoing challenge across our network, and any designated funds we have must be utilised across a variety of priorities to manage our network.
Depending on the road, location, or junction, it may take up to 3 months or longer to get the necessary authority to close a road or slip road as we may need the approval of the local authorities to use their roads to implement diversions. Without implementing diversions to close some slip roads, our maintenance partners can’t safely clear these areas.
As we aren’t an enforcement agency, we’re working proactively with local councils to understand how we can collaboratively address these issues and target the offenders with potential prosecutions by the council where possible. We also work with Defra and other organisations like Keep Britain Tidy, and the Campaign to Protect Rural England to raise public awareness of the dangers and costs associated with litter. Our overall approach for tackling litter is set out in our litter strategy. This outlines our goals and initiatives, supporting our vision of a network predominantly free from litter, without compromising safety.
Again, we apologise for any inconvenience or frustration litter along the A2 and M2 may have caused you, and we’ll continue to monitor the area in accordance with the Defra Code of Practice and raise any additional work outside of our normal cyclic maintenance to clear litter where possible.
Kind Regards
National Highways
This report is now closed to updates from the public. You can make a new report in the same location.