Councillors thank staff and contractors for continued efforts over heatwave weekend

August 13, 2020

Cabinet councillors have thanked council staff and contractors who worked hard this weekend to help keep people safe and the Borough clean and tidy.

Over 100 council staff and contractors were on duty during the weekend heatwave, with waste crews from Veolia working shifts covering 4.30am to 11pm each day to empty bins, litter pick, sweep streets and clean toilets across the Borough.

In addition, CCTV crews worked with community safety officers and police colleagues across the weekend, with CCTV staff helping police to locate a drink driver on Sunday night and direct them to youths attempting to steal a bike on the seafront.

Community safety and pier and foreshore teams were also on hand to assist with the rescue of a teenager on Sunday who had ignored safety signs and advice from our teams and jumped into the water from the pier. A pier and foreshore officer was out in a boat at the time and was able to help with the rescue that was need due to the strong currents, and saw all those involved getting back to the shore safely.

Volunteer beach welfare officers, based in the Jubilee beach office were also working across the seafront, performing lifeguard and first aid duties, and ensuring people could enjoy a safe environment.

In addition, partnership briefing calls took place on Saturday and Sunday morning at 9.30am which include the police, and staff from the council’s community safety unit, pier and foreshore team, CCTV, and council contractors if available.

These meetings are supplemented by internal officer meetings on Friday and Monday mornings to plan for the weekend ahead and review any problems and issues faced.

Cllr Carole Mulroney, cabinet member for environment and planning, says: “It was another scorcher of a weekend, and a number of council staff and contractors worked hard to keep our seafront and Borough clean and tidy. Yet again we had to deal with large amounts of littering across a variety of areas and a number of other issues, and we will continue to review our response and operational plans to deal with this and other challenges.

“For example, with additional measures in place at our public toilets due to COVID-19, there are queues for our public toilets at busy times, and that is why we have brought in additional portaloos along Marine Parade over the summer. These are scheduled to be cleaned and opened by mid-morning but we are reviewing the times of operation following queues seen early on Saturday morning.”

Cllr Martin Terry, cabinet member for community safety, says: “With more and more visitors seeing Southend-on-Sea as an ideal staycation location, it is important we continue to adapt and keep our plans flexible. We had a full community safety team out this weekend, working hard to keep people safe and work with the police. I thank everyone for their efforts, and particularly the officers involved in ensuring a teen who had got into trouble after jumping from the pier. Often this work is unseen, but it is important that we recognise and thank those staff for their actions.”

Cllr Kevin Robinson, cabinet member for business, culture and tourism, says: “We have seven miles of wonderful blue flag and seaside award winning beaches, along with fantastic parks and open space.

“We have seen lots of people enjoying these spaces this heatwave weekend, and I want to thank all those staff and contractors who have worked so hard to deal with the challenges that the hot weather brings. Some of these challenges are familiar to us but some are quite new. With the number of people visiting, there are always going to incidents and issues that we can learn from too, and that is why we keep our plans flexible and under review to ensure that we can make appropriate improvements and changes where needed.”