Lucy Galvin, the new leader at City Hall, has said locals can expect a “zero tolerance” approach to rubbish on the streets as her party takes its first steps as an administration.
“People should feel proud of where they live,” she said. “That’s everywhere, across the whole of Norwich.”
Ms Galvin said cleanliness emerged as one of the top issues when her party was knocking on doors ahead of their historic victory in May.
Lucy Galvin (Image: Supplied)
“We heard that people wanted a cleaner city, they want us to really get to grips with fly-tipping and litter,” she added.
Litter pickers and business owners in Norwich say fly-tipping has spiralled out of control lately, with mattresses, fridges and furniture regularly dumped outside shops and behind parts of the city’s historic medieval walls.
Critics have blamed a new booking system introduced at Norfolk’s recycling centres in late 2024 for making the problem worse.
Rubbish behind the city walls (Image: A litter picker from Project NR)
Sixty fines have been issued and four prosecutions brought in the last eight months, but Ms Galvin said her administration – which is leading City Hall for the first time – will seek to go further, tackling the problem “at source” rather than “having to go find people”.
She is also hoping an influx of bins will help. There are currently 800 across the city and 30 more have recently been installed.
A sofa dumped in Finklegate (Image: Submitted)
Ms Galvin said ensuring they are emptied more regularly, particularly over bank holiday weekends when many overflow, would be a key priority.
She added that trials in how they are collected are already under way across the city.
“Getting the basics right is key for us,” she said. “It’s what we heard from people and it’s what we want to deliver.”
Her comments come as frustration mounts over the state of Norwich’s streets.
This week, business owners and residents near Prince of Wales Road demanded action after seagulls tore open bin bags left out overnight, scattering rubbish across one of the city’s busiest roads.
Rats were also blamed for ravaging the waste before it could be collected – leaving the street looking, in the words of one local, like “someone has emptied a bin in the street”.