Our street cleaning schedule

To make sure our streets and other public areas are clean and free of litter and rubbish, road sweeping and litter picking are scheduled on a regular basis.

Mechanical road sweepers in Colchester

Colchester City Council (CCC) are responsible for keeping the roads clean in parts of the city that are adopted by Essex County Council (ECC) Highways Department. The responsibility for this (within CCC) lies with the Street Care and Safety Team. The sweeping of these ECC adopted roads is undertaken by a team using mechanical sweepers who work around the city in a methodical fashion. Details of Wards that are due to be cleaned by the Sweeper Team will be updated on this page.

There is the capability to deploy machines for individual tasks that require a more immediate response outside of this published timetable. Members of the public or councillors can report areas that they feel require sweeping via a Street Cleaning Request  or by calling 01206 282700. These reports will be assessed and actioned as necessary, but it is our intention to follow our sweeping programme and not to redeploy sweeping machines unless the priority of the reported task renders it necessary.

Each year from October through to the Spring, we will prioritise removing leaves from public Roads and footpaths that are situated in areas with a high density of trees, such as Highwoods, Mersea Island and Lexden and Braiswick.

From Monday 12th May 2025 we will be starting to sweep Mile End Ward and St Annes and St Johns Ward. These will be followed by Mersea and Pyefleet Ward and Lexden and Braiswick Ward.

A12 litter-picking 

We are responsible for clearing litter from the verges of the A12 between Easthorpe (near Kelvedon) and Lodge Lane (near Dedham).

These verges fall into two categories:

1. Safe for our staff to litter pick
   • We aim to carry out litter picking every two weeks, depending on the weather and other commitments.
2. Unsafe for our staff to litter pick
   • Large sections of the A12 are too dangerous to clean without lane closures. To address this, we work with contractors to close lanes overnight, ensuring these areas are kept free of litter.
   • We plan to schedule lane closures several times a year, subject to budget. Additionally, we collaborate with contractors to carry out litter picking during their planned road closures whenever possible.

Street cleaning requests

We also regularly deal with street cleaning requests such as removing fly-tipping, cleaning up graffiti, litter picks and public bin issues which you can report to us online.