Calgary councillor proposes sweeping changes to street cleaning

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – This weekend’s blast of winter has forced the City of Calgary to suspend its street sweeping program for a couple of days. The cleaning crews have gone back into winter operation mode.

Street sweeping will still be a hot topic at City Hall with the head of Calgary’s Transportation Committee asking for changes to the street sweeping program after thousands of tickets were handed out in just three weeks.

The annual street cleaning blitz began April 1 and 23,697 tickets were handed out for being illegally parked within those three weeks.

Councillor Shane Keating calls that number astonishing.

“I am not opposed to the process we are going through, but I think we could make it better – Not sure 12 hours notice is adequate so I think we should be looking at that.”

As head of the Transportation Committee, the Ward 12 Councillor said he knows the importance of moving cars so the sweepers can do their job.

He contends changes are needed to make the current notification process better:

“I am wondering if we can’t more signage out and use some of the revenue to give notice each year.”

Keating said the City should also be more flexible in scheduling street sweeping.

“When the church holds 2,000 people, (there’s) no sense to ban parking. We have to move past the point of thinking this is our schedule and this is what we are doing.”

With files from Kenny Mason

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