Cllr Gordon Hook, Teignbridge Council executive member for environmental services, writes:
I would like to thank Ann Jones for her letter regarding Newton Abbot multi-storey car park – published in last week's edition – which raised some concerns regarding cleanliness and the operation of the lift. I apologise on behalf of the council for the problems Mrs Jones has experienced.
We take the cleanliness of the entire district seriously, and operate a freephone environmental hotline for anyone who'd like to report litter, flytipping, graffiti or any lack of environmental standards.
It's available on 0800 328 6402 and our cleaning Blitz Team aims to respond to all reports within 24 hours. Please help us by using it and reporting anything you regard as unsatisfactory.
We have spoken directly to Mrs Jones, but it may reassure your readers to know that there is a daily cleansing schedule for the stairwells at the car park, with specialist cleaning of the lift twice a week.
More vigorous cleaning in the form of pressure washing is undertaken monthly.
With regards to the lift being out-of-order, if this is the case we do place signs by the entrance barrier and on every floor of the car park. If someone would rather not use the car park, they can take an entrance ticket and, provided they exit within ten minutes, can leave without paying any charge.
In the last year the lift has been operational 98 per cent of the time, but was out of action for nine days in August due to an unexpected fault. It is turned off for two hours per month for servicing and, additionally, there have been approximately four times where the lift has been turned off for a couple of hours for essential maintenance.
In response to Mrs Jones' letter, we will be reviewing the signs we put up to make sure they are displayed as prominently as possible.
We have also arranged a deep steam clean of the stairwells to be completed as soon as possible, and will also be putting up signs in the stairwells advertising our environmental hotline number.
Finally, Mrs Jones mentioned that Teignbridge vans are often in the car park but don't appear to be associated with cleaning. These are the vans used by our enforcement team and are parked in the car park for security. The team will usually be out on foot while the vans are there, and while they are not cleaners they will notify us if they come across anywhere in need of attention.
These officers can also have incidents reported to them.
I hope this helps clarify the arrangements at the multi-storey and offers some reassurance. MORE LETTERS ON LINE