Join the fightback against years of neglect and budget cuts from Glasgow City Council.

Too many backcourts across Govan are regularly unsanitary and hazardous. Year after year of budget cuts to cleansing services have left them unfit to live or work around. Rats and seagulls are so rampant many parents won't risk their children playing out the back. The conditions can make it impossible for our overworked and underpaid cleansing workers to do their jobs to the standards they'd like.

We need an end to the cuts and we need more bins. Until the bin replacement programme brings us more bins we need an enhanced cleansing service.

Govan residents and cleansing workers are uniting this Saturday (24th August) to demand the Council reinstates backcourt teams for our area. Meeting at 9am next to the Mary Barbour Statue (Govan Cross), several action-teams will take on different backcourts and streets before returning to Govan Cross for a demonstration at 12pm - bringing back any rubbish collected to create a visual display as evidence of the Council’s neglect. Volunteers will get a health and safety briefing and personal protective equipment.

These backcourt teams or 'closebusters' we are demanding would be responsible for the cleansing of the entire backcourts rather than just the bin sets and they would take away bulk uplift items. This work was once done as part of the general cleansing service. The severity of the current situation calls for the immediate reinstatement of backcourt teams to supplement the current workforce.

The Council tells us that the bin replacement programme will alleviate many problems but this won't be completed in Govan until mid-2020. Govan's tenants and workers cannot be expected to put up with rats and overflowing bins until then. Living Rent Govan and GMB Scotland stand behind the demands of the community that this enhanced service involving backcourt teams is brought in at least until the Bin Replacement Programme is complete across the city.

Let's show our strength as a community. Through collective action we can win victories for the neighbourhood. Get involved.