Litter around the hospital site

I am working closely with officers at the Borough Council to encourage Cheltenham General Hospital to keep their grounds and the roads around their premises clear of litter. There has been communication between the hospital and council regarding measures that can be taken to improve cleanliness in the area. 

The hospital agreed to meet council officers to discuss various issues in further detail and this meeting took place on July 27th. Officers from the council's cleansing company Ubico met with representatives of Cheltenham General Hospital in order to work out a solution particularly to the ongoing problem of cigarette ends littering the pavement outside the hospital. 

It was decided that two benches would be removed, and that the old litter bin outside the hospital would be replaced with a new one that incorporated an ash tray into the top. A joint effort at litter collection is also going to take place. The NHS will remove litter within the hospital grounds, while Ubico will remove litter from the pavement and boundary.

I have been very keen for there to be joint co-operative working between the council and the hospital to deal with these issues although I am not convinced removing benches is the right thing to do. People will still smoke and instead of being in one place by a bench, cigarette ends could be discarded over a much wider area.