Street Cleaning and Litter

We are responsible for sweeping roads, pavements and public land, helping to keep the environment clear of litter and dirt.

Not all street problems are dealt with by East Herts Council, some problems such as blocked drains are dealt with by Hertfordshire County Council. Before reporting a problem please read our list below to make sure we can help you.

What we do

  • We will remove fly tipping or dumped items from verges, pavements next to roads and on council-owned land. For more information please see our Dumped Rubbish (Fly tipping) page.
  • We may be able to deal with instances of illegal adding of posters on to property (Fly-Posting). You can report instances of this via our Fly-Posting page
  • We aim to remove graffiti from East Herts Council owned property within seven to ten days of it being reported and within 24 hours if the graffiti is racist/offensive. For graffiti on private property the council may be able to remove it for a small charge.
  • We take action on people who dump rubbish, drop litter and other environmental offences. For more detail visit our Fixed Penalty Notices for Littering & Dog Fouling page.
  • If you have received a fine and you want to pay or challenge a fine, please see our Pay or Challenge a Fixed Penalty Notice page
  • We operate a rolling programme which we regularly review to ensure we are responding to the different areas of the District. The more frequently the road is used, the more litter will gather and this may be reflected in the number of times a road is visited. Our waste services team have worked with Hertfordshire County Council highways to enable us to litter pick on the high speed roads.
  • We manage street cleansing across the District. To report a street or area that is in need of street cleansing, please use our Report Street Cleansing or Litter Form
  • We empty the majority of litter bins across the District.  If you have seen a full or overflowing bin, please see our overflowing bin page.

What we don't do

  • We are not responsible for cleaning from privately owned land (e.g. housing association land, building plots, industrial estates and railway sidings, please contact the land owner - if the land owner is not responding to requests then we will investigate.
  • If you have a blocked grid, drain or gully, report this to Hertfordshire County Council.
  • If there is a fly tip, hazard or spillage obstructing the road please contact Hertfordshire County Council.
  • For abandoned trolleys - Asda & Sainsbury - contact Trolleywise 0800 316 124 For Tesco call Trolley Collection Service on 01392 882 210.

Organise your own litter pick

We recognise that community groups including schools, Scout and Guide groups, adult organisations such as WI and Rotary Clubs, and annual organised community clean ups add a huge amount of value to looking after and improving our local environment.

If you are part of a community group, school or are organising a community 'tidy up', we have litter picking equipment available to loan, free of charge, to community groups on request. This equipment is available to borrow on a first come first served basis. We require a completed equipment booking form and a minimum of two weeks' notice before your event to organise equipment. To hire equipment, please see our Community Litter Picking Form page