Published: Monday 26 January 2026
The streets of Kensington and Chelsea will be getting an early spring clean this winter, with the Council investing £700,000 to improve waste collection and street cleaning.
The investment means more staff, more vehicles and more streets cleaned every day.
An enhanced service
The new service includes two new electric vehicles and three new electric sweepers.
Busy areas such as shopping streets, restaurants and stations will benefit from enhanced street washing with a new crew and vehicle.
An extra crew will operate daily, clearing dumped rubbish from 50 more streets, boosting the daily cleaning schedule.
Extra staff will be on hand to empty bins at weekends when footfall is high.
Cllr Johnny Thalassites, lead member for environment and planning said:
“Residents care about the state of their neighbourhoods and so do we. We pride ourselves on the cleanliness of our streets, but there is always more we can do, which is why we are making this extra effort to make the streets of Kensington and Chelsea the cleanest in the UK.
“Despite the challenges we face, both in our budget and recovering from a recent cyber attack, this boost to our waste and street cleaning shows that this Council is absolutely committed to finding ways to meet the priorities of our residents and visitors to keep Kensington and Chelsea a wonderful place to be.”
Funding the improvements
The Council is facing a difficult financial outlook, with a funding gap of £108 million over the next four years due to changes in government funding. This new investment in street cleaning has been made possible thanks to increased enforcement of environmental crime, like littering and fly-tipping. Between April and November 2025, this enforcement generated £298,000, making the new investment possible alongside parking income, which is ringfenced for use on environmental uses. Parking income has increased due to Londonwide increases in penalty notices charge fees.
Residents love clean streets!
In a recent survey 81 per cent of surveyed residents reported that they were happy with the borough’s waste collection service and 77 per cent said they were satisfied with street cleaning. This beats satisfaction rates London and nationwide, but the Council’s ambition is to improve this even further to have the cleanest streets in the UK.