Last updated 15:56, Wednesday, 30 April 2008

IT’S reassuring to see Copeland Council bouncing back after wheelie-bin-gate. Whitehaven was receiving national and international publicity last week for all the wrong reasons.

Elaine Woodburn provides a robust defence on this page and, while it’s unlikely to have much impact on the tabloids or national TV, it might at least put things into perspective for Copeland folk.

The council is also bringing the fight to the front-line with a concerted effort to get our streets clean, be it through all-night steam cleaning or opening the Frizington civic amenities’ site for an extra day. Even the elusive dog warden has been spotted at work on the streets of Millom.

It all amounts to a PR offensive to counter last week’s bad press and a genuine attempt to get the basics right. The ball is very much in Copeland’s court at the moment and only time will tell whether they succeed in sorting out all things waste-related. But as the council have discovered, it’s not enough to just do the job properly. They also need to show and convince the public that they are up to the job. That’s a tall order. Who doesn’t know some dogdirt-ridden footpath near their house? Who hasn’t gone all the way to Copeland’s recycling bins in supermarket car parks only to find them full to the brim? And who doesn’t have some gripe about the way their rubbish is collected – or not collected?

But if this week’s momentum can be kept up then the councillors should be sitting pretty. There’s no denying there’s been a concerted effort by staff at all levels at Copeland to put the weekus horribilis behind them and prove they can – and often do – do the job properly.

However, there’s an earlier deadline than the next local elections. In five months and three weeks Copeland have invited the audit commission back to demonstrate what progress they have made.

Over to you Elaine...