As we move into autumn, Barnet’s Street Scene service is preparing to begin the annual task of clearing leaves from our streets and footways.
Leaf fall in a park
This represents a considerable challenge in Barnet, a borough with over 30,000 street trees. The annual leaf fall can be unpredictable due to weather and varying leaf fall times depending on tree species. The council is preparing for a sustained effort over a number of weeks to clear leaves from footways and highways during autumn and winter.
From Monday 1 November Barnet’s Street Scene service will once again be deploying teams specifically focussed on clearing leaves from streets and public spaces in the borough. This will focus initially on high footfall locations and transport hubs with the clearance of residential roads taking place after the bulk of the leaves have fallen. Teams will be clearing leaves through manual sweeping as well as removal through mechanical street sweepers and industrial vacuums. This work will continue until January 2022.
From the week commencing 15 November 2021, Re Highways will be working collaboratively with Street Scene to clear leaf fall from streets and gullies on 28 priority routes. The routes can be found here.
Councillor Dean Cohen, Chairman of the council’s Environment Committee, said: "Barnet is a green borough with a large number of trees in our streets, parks and open spaces. The trees help make Barnet an attractive place to live and visit but they do produce a high volume of leaf fall each autumn. The council’s dedicated leaf clearance programme is an important part of our overall effort to keep the streets and environment in Barnet clean and safe for residents and visitors."
Residents and businesses in the borough can assist us in our efforts by not sweeping leaves from frontages, driveways and gardens onto the footway but collecting these for home composting where possible or putting them in green garden waste bins if they have subscribed to this service: www.barnet.gov.uk/gardenwaste
If you feel the leaves on your road require immediate attention please let us know. Please do however be reassured that all roads will be cleared during this period.
Thank you for your ongoing support in helping to keep Barnet clean and green. #cleanerbarnet