Many people live in homes that back onto narrow alleyways, especially on older terraces. These narrow streets often suffer from the blight of these passages being full of rubbish, often fly-tipped, as well as signs of vandalism, drug use and other criminal and antisocial activity.
Such places are not pleasant places for residents to set foot, but in recent years many people have fought back to reclaim their alleyways and ginnels. They have set out to restrict outside access, clean out the rubbish and grime, and add new features, such as benches, flower pots, and artwork, transforming them from places to avoid to places to enjoy.
Examples of this include the Moss Side area of Manchester, once a district notorious for gun crime and poverty, but now filled with transformed alleyways, cleaned up and filled with plants from flowers to home-grown fruit and veg. This month has seen a public display of these alleys as they have been opened up as a trail for visitors to explore and admire.
This kind of transformation has happened in various places across the UK and it may inspire you and your neighbours to do the same with your own alleyway.
However, cleaning up these passageways may not always be easy and often you may need to bring in the professionals with a high-pressure water jet. This can clean away graffiti, grime, loose and unsightly crumbling cement and more gunge, leaving a pristine surface to provide a brick and concrete canvas for you and your neighbours to work with.
Sometimes cleaning up alleyways can be a big community effort, as in a recent case in Peterborough where parents and pupils came together to help clear up an alleyway outside a primary school that was filled with waste and foul items ranging from human waste to used syringes.
Whether your local effort is on behalf of residents or the users of a facility such as a school, make sure you have the equipment to complete a thorough clean-up so that you can ensure a true and lasting transformation.