Street cleaning should not be street cleansing

’s response to the story of the street cleaner (we assume) dumping the sleeping bags of some city centre homeless people in the rubbish.

Cleaning is carried out on the council’s behalf by their partners, Balfour Beatty Living Places (Given this is about people who don’t have a place to live, is there any irony in that?) Council policy is: Unattended items can be dumped; attended items can’t.

Because none of the homeless people were actually attending to their sleeping bags at the time (presumably, a bit awkward to lug around to the nearest public toilet, or wherever), it could be said the cleaner was just carrying out policy.

But on the basis that sleeping bags and bedding in a doorway probably belongs to a rough sleeper, you might think they were personal belongings that might be needed by the person.

Given that it was bedding and it was snowing/sleeting, it might not merely be needed, it might be utterly essential.

So as a council whose responsibilities, other than street cleaning, also extend to looking after the homeless, you might be just a little shocked, outraged, dismayed, gobsmacked or amazed that anyone could do something so thoughtless or, worse still, possibly heartless, on your behalf.

Oh, and thank you Mr Siemon Rice, for taking the photo and bringing it to everyone’s attention. God forbid no-one would have noticed, or cared.