Telford named ‘second cleanest city’ in the UK - beating seaside and historic rivals
Telford and Wrekin has been named as the second cleanest city in the UK in a recent survey by ‘GetAgent’ which explores homeowner buying preferences.
The estate agent comparison site gave Telford a clean city score of 8.26 (compared with winners Newcastle upon Tyne at 8.39), which was generated by scoring a host of different factors such as waste expenditure, air quality, recycling rates, and overall cleanliness and tidiness.
After starting with 100 cities, GetAgent narrowed it down to 40, with Telford beating Birmingham (16th); Wolverhampton (26th) and Stoke-on-Trent (29th).
Telford also topped the tables for resident ratings with the second highest score and came fourth overall, for household waste sent for recycling (per 10,000 people).
Telford and Wrekin Council says these scores support findings earlier in the year that showed its household recycling rate increased by 1.2 per cent from 2019/20 to 2020/21, successfully bucking the national trend which saw the country’s average reduce by 1.7 per cent.
Data also showed that the council’s household recycling rate for 20/21 was 4.4 per cent above the official recycling rate for England.
Building on this, the council launched a campaign to drive recycling rates in other areas of daily life, focusing on its parks to support recycling ‘on-the-go’.
In October 2021, the council installed 25 recycling on-the-go bins in Telford Town Park and immediately saw an uplift in the volume of waste being diverted to recycling, with early figures showing the amount of target materials collected increased by 123 per cent.
Along with efficient waste disposal, pollution levels also fall under recommended exposure thresholds set by the World Health Organisation (WHO), meaning that the air in Telford and Wrekin is ideal for people who enjoy being outdoors.
Councillor Lee Carter, the cabinet member for neighbourhood services, regeneration and the high street, said: “This is fantastic news and shows how much effort goes into keeping Telford and Wrekin a clean, green and safe place to live.
"My congratulations go to everyone who plays a part, from residents and street champions to all the crews who clean the street signs, collect litter and clear away fly tips.
“We are continually pushing to raise standards and I’m particularly pleased about the resident rating score and coming second against big cities like York or beautiful historic places like Oxford and Cambridge."
Telford also has 17 Local Nature Reserves and one of the country’s top ten Green Flag parks, all owned and managed by the council, who have recently committed £3m to further protecting and enhancing Telford and Wrekin’s green and open spaces.
The final score was assigned out of 10 for various factors, before taking an average to give a final score out of 10.
GetAgent began by looking at the 100 most populated cities and towns across England, and removed any, where data was not available leaving 40 cities in total.
The top 10 cleanest cities, according to 'GetAgent', were:
1. Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2. Telford
3. York
4. Warrington
5. Bradford
6. Leeds
7. Milton Keynes
8. Chelmsford
9. Doncaster
10. Brighton and Hove
Other West Midlands locations on the list were:
16. Birmingham
26. Wolverhampton
29. Stoke-on-Trent
