'Action not words': Ipswich's Big Clean starts on Monday
Businesses, residents, the council and police will spend five days scrubbing, sweeping, pressure washing and fining their way across Ipswich town centre from Monday. Ipswich Central, the town's BID, says the campaign is about pride, not blame – but the real test is what happens next.
Four weeks ago, we walked the town centre at half past eight on a Tuesday morning and catalogued what we found: chewing gum fused to the paving, drifts of cigarette ends within touching distance of bins, bird foul baked onto paving slabs, bin bags piled high outside shops from opening to close, stains that nobody could name and nobody had removed, and a level of grime that just isn't acceptable.
From Monday, 21 September, the town will spend a week trying to do something about it.
What The Big Clean is
The Big Clean is a five-day campaign organised by Ipswich Central, the Business Improvement District (BID) for the town centre and waterfront area, and delivered with Ipswich Borough Council, Suffolk Police, two sponsoring businesses and anyone else who wants to get involved.
It follows the BID's manifesto, backed by town centre businesses over the summer, which pledged cleaner streets, and was built on the principle that caring for Ipswich is a responsibility shared by everyone who lives, works, trades in or visits the town. Ipswich Central describes the campaign as "action not words" – a response to what it calls "growing public discussion about the appearance of streets and public spaces around the town."
The initial areas of focus are the waterfront; parks and green spaces; commercial areas; the high street corridor from Norwich Road to Carr Street; and The Saints, The Walk, Buttermarket and Dial Lane.
The week, day by day
Each day of the week has a theme, with three strands of council and police activity running underneath all of them.
- Monday, 21 September is The Big Clean itself, led by the council and Ipswich Central, with litter picking and general tidying across the target areas.
- Tuesday, 22 September is Business Pride Day, when town centre businesses are being asked to take responsibility for their own frontages. Ipswich.co.uk will be reporting on which organisations take part – and which do not.
- Thursday, 24 September is Communi-TEA, a day of employer-backed volunteering and a thank-you for those who have taken part.
- Friday, 25 September is Fix It Friday, closing the week with a standards walk involving Ipswich Central, the council and Suffolk Police.
Throughout the five days, the council has committed to daily jet washing and street cleaning and to waste enforcement activity, while Suffolk Police will be running activity focused on street drinking, e-bikes and e-scooters. Ipswich Central and its partners will be capturing before-and-after evidence along the way. We'll be there to report it.
'Ipswich belongs to all of us'
Lee Walker, chief executive of Ipswich Central, has been careful throughout to frame the campaign as something other than a rebuke.
"Ipswich belongs to all of us," he said. "The council and its partners provide essential cleaning and maintenance services, but no council can keep a town looking its best through public services alone. Businesses, residents, employees, property owners and visitors all shape the places we share."
He added: "The Big Clean is not about assigning blame. It is about recognising our community responsibility and giving everyone a practical way to take pride in Ipswich. If we each look after the space around us, report problems promptly and challenge behaviour that harms the town, the collective difference will be significant."
It is a line Walker has held since August, when he told this publication that "the council doesn't drop litter – in many ways they work harder than anyone to clear it up," while also arguing that "if we don't get the basics and the standards right, we lose the right to do the exciting, fun things that encourage people to visit."
Local law firm Ellisons, based on Princes Street, is providing the people to carry out work throughout the week. Commercial cleaning company Vivo Clean, which currently provides cleaning services at Portman Road, is providing the materials.
Ellisons said it was "proud to support The Big Clean and to play our part in an initiative that reflects the shared responsibility we all have for the places in which we live and work."
"As a major employer in Ipswich, many of our staff, clients and business contacts spend time in the town every day, and we know how important a clean, welcoming and well-cared-for environment is in creating a positive experience for everyone," the firm said.
"The Big Clean is about much more than litter picking; it is about demonstrating pride in Ipswich, strengthening our community, and helping to make the town an even more attractive place to live, work, invest and visit."
What has already changed
The Big Clean arrives against a backdrop that has shifted noticeably in the weeks that followed our State of Our Streets campaign.
Oliver Rouane-Williams
On Tuesday, 14 July, the council's Executive approved £400,000 over two years for a new Neighbourhood Cleansing Team – six posts, running until the end of March 2028, with an initial focus on the main entry routes into town.
Since Wednesday, 22 July, the council has been issuing Fixed Penalty Notices to businesses leaving bagged waste on the street outside collection times. By Tuesday, 1 September it had issued 67, with 22 more being processed; its own figures showed weekly instances of bagged waste falling from 84 to 29. One business alone had collected 13 notices. Just nine of the 67 fines had been paid.
Oliver Rouane-Williams
Between 25 and 27 August, two council workers pressure washed the pavement on Upper Brook Street between Poundstretcher and Sainsbury's, transforming it after a stop-start couple of days, and showing how dramatic the difference a jet wash makes to a town centre pavement. It also highlighted just how dirty our streets are, and how rarely they're cleaned: Ipswich.co.uk understands the council's town centre pressure washing has, until now, been a roughly annual exercise.
Nicola Sebastian
A reset, not a routine
The Big Clean is a one-off – a reset, rather than a regular commitment. "A major clean-up can deliver an immediate improvement, but this is about more than one day," Walker said. "We want The Big Clean to strengthen year-round pride, improve how recurring problems are reported and encourage every part of the community to protect the town."
The question that leaves hanging is who maintains the standard once the volunteers go home on Friday afternoon. Ipswich Central has no cleaning fleet and no enforcement powers. Ellisons and Vivo Clean have day jobs. The only organisation with the vehicles, the staff, the statutory powers and the funding is the council.
The bottom line
Ipswich Central has done what it said it would do. It has turned its manifesto pledge into a scheduled week of action, and brought the council and the police to the table.
But a reset only works if something different follows it. The council has committed to five days of daily jet washing. When the campaign ends on Friday, 25 September, the town will look better than it has all year – and the only thing standing between that and the slow slide back to baked-on grime and filth is how often the council is prepared to send the pressure washers out again.
Once a year is not enough. The Big Clean will show what the town centre can look like. It is for the council to decide whether that becomes the standard or the exception.
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