Meet Kent's street cleaning heroes

From traffic woes to unexpected finds, the team in Faversham have their work cut out for them.  Kristin Hawthorne reports.

Transcript

00:00Dust, dirt and a whole lot of sweeping. Street cleaners tidy our roads and it's a job that

00:05many of us may take for granted.

00:07Have you ever been caught behind one of these vehicles? Well, it's actually called a mechanical

00:12sweeper and they're here to clean our roads to prevent them from coming overridden with

00:16dirt and rubbish. I'm here today to find out a little bit more about what they do and what

00:21the process is behind cleaning our streets.

00:24Before they arrive, the team put up signs instructing residents not to park on the street.

00:29But why?

00:30Unfortunately, we will come along sometimes and none of the cars have moved and you'll

00:34tend to find that they are the roads that are the worst because we just can't get in.

00:39We can clean in between the cars as much as possible manually, but if we can't get in

00:43to sweep it properly then it'll just build up.

00:46You might not realise the amount of people it takes to clean our streets. On the clean

00:50that I attended in Faversham, there was three crews. Some were picking up litter, some were

00:55removing weeds and dirt from the kerb, while others were blowing the debris onto the road

01:00for the sweeper to remove.

01:02That sweeps the channel. This is the suction box, it picks up all the rubbish. Right. Yeah,

01:08that goes up and down. This one here is a weed ripper. Obviously we've got spray bars

01:15on all of them. That sprays the water out just to dust suppress it. And then on the

01:22back here, it just works like an uber. Sucks up all the leaks.

01:28Like with most public cleans, the team are used to finding all sorts of unexpected things

01:33while on the job.

01:34We do find some strange stuff, I must admit that. Occasionally, you might find an odd

01:38fiver. Found a gun once and that was in a lay-by on Boulton Bypass.

01:44And then what did you do when you found that?

01:47So I had to phone the company. It was a different company to this one. And they came and sent

01:53the police out to pick it up. I was there most of the day with it.

01:57But there are some factors that can make the job more difficult.

02:00When you're doing this job, you've got to be very observant of everybody else that's

02:04on the road. They just drive at you because you're driving so slow.

02:09Yeah, I pretty much have to think for everybody on the road when you're driving this.

02:17So the next time you find yourself stuck behind a street sweeper on your way to work,

02:21it might be worth remembering the people that keep our county clean.

02:25Kristen Hawthorne for CAMTV in Faversham.