Plumstead High Street deep clean begins
Good news as the deep clean of Plumstead High Street is now underway. Credit to Greenwich Council for investing in a new jet-washing machine which is being used along the High Street.
Work is expected to take up to six weeks which seems a long time.
By the time the other end is finished they’ll need to go back to where they begun. This shows the in-ground dirt along the street.
In other welcome news from Greenwich Council, Abbey Wood’s Wilton Road should see deep cleaning soon to ensure its recent £400,000 upgrade remains in good condition.
Greenwich, Woolwich and Eltham Town Centres will also benefit from deep cleaning.
What needs to happen now in Plumstead is continuing pressure on those building owners who fail to maintain properties, as well as the council keeping those who want to improve on side.
Only around 25% of owners bothered to respond to earlier attempts by Greenwich Council to engage. Some of the worst buildings are owned by one owner according to Companies House. Pleading poverty isn’t an excuse if owning a number of properties.
Months on and there’s still crap signage, faded and tatty banners and crumbling facades that need action. If some wont improve their buildings then Section 215 needs commencing, so these owners don’t drag down the considerate owners who care for buildings and the wider environment.
Back to the positives, and this action by Greenwich Council with both deep cleaning and requiring property owners to improve conditions is a good start to a better High Street.
They need to have a look at the paving and roadside by Woolwich Arsenal DLR station. Woolwich New Road is a disgrace, paving filthy and also buildings, bins and bus stops. That area hasn’t had a good clean in years. I go past on a bus in the morning, and often see it, could do with a good clean. At present Woolwich is like a divided town, to one side you have the sparkling new Woolwich Arsenal site with glitzy new tower blocks and new shops and sparkling new paving, and on the other side of Plumstead Road is filthy old buildings, closed rotten old market, buildings that look like about to fall down, and filthy paving. Woolwich town centre could be such a nice place, I remember it from the 70s and 80s when the likes of Cuffs was there, was a great shopping centre. The town has great potential, great old buildings, but still the same case, just left to rot. a shame!
Agreed, the bottom part of Woolwich New Road is a dirty mess. It doesn’t help that the grocers and fishmongers leave their crates and rubbish outside.
Good that Plumstead High Street is getting a wash, but I wonder how long it will remain clean before it gets dirty again.
Forgot to add that Woolwich is actually a lot nicer now than it was 20 years ago when you had the dirty roundabout that was General Gordon Square and the proliferation of pound shops. Back then there wasn’t even a DLR and the Tube and North Greenwich hadn’t been built. But I agree, Woolwich is along way from what it once was…