A MAN from Farnborough pushed the council into cleaning up the town centre by publishing a series of videos on YouTube.

Peter Bristow, of Victoria Road, posted clips on the video sharing website to highlight what he believed was Rushmoor Borough Council’s failure to keep Farnborough’s Queensmead centre clean.

Each video showed images of cigarette ends, pigeon faeces, rubbish and untidy foliage.

Mr Bristow, 65, argued the council were neglecting to sweep regularly.

He said: “The worst problem was cigarette ends and pigeon droppings. There was pigeon droppings everywhere. It just wasn’t being swept – the place was a total and utter mess.

“As taxpayers we are paying for it to be swept every day, and it wasn’t being swept. These places which effectively should be areas of civic pride are just like bomb sites.”

In his YouTube videos, Mr Bristow, who is retired, compared Farnborough’s town centre to the centres of Fleet and Camberley.

The clips show much cleaner images of these neighbouring Blackwater Valley town centres.

“The other two centres were swept properly,” said Mr Bristow. “In both Camberley and Fleet you could see where it had been swept, and in the Queensmead it hadn’t.

“In Camberley they had taken action against the pigeons and minimised the nuisance. It is swept properly, it is kept clean. It looks like it is swept every day.”

Mr Bristow also highlighted other areas in Farnborough he felt were not being kept clean, including the area around Farnborough library, Marrowbrook Lane and Victoria Road.

He said: “They [the council] were doing nothing about it until I embarrassed them. I have had to force them to up their game.

“Every time I expose them they go and do something about it - but they won’t do something about it until they are forced to.”

Mr Bristow suggested the council was not handling its contract properly, and just signing off the work without quality control checks.

Andrew Lloyd, chief executive of Rushmoor Borough Council, said: “It is clear to see there have been improvements in cleaning detail in the areas Mr Bristow has identified.

“We will continue to focus on cleaning up Queensmead and the town centre area, and we want to make sure it is at a standard that residents expect.

“I am confident we have made some improvements and the town centre has benefitted from that. It is good when local residents take this level of interest.

“We have a good working relationship with our contractor, who I feel performs well overall.”

To watch the videos, type “Queensmead Farnborough” into a YouTube search.

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