I have been in contact with Windsor & Maidenhead Council Street Care Team. The council operate the Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) by:
The Council originally employed two Litter Enforcement Officers on 6-month temporary contracts.
Other Council staff were being trained to issue litter Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN), including Parking Wardens and Community Wardens.
The income from litter fixed penalty notices supplemented the officers, but did not cover all of the costs of employing them.
Adopt-a-Street was introduced around the same time. This has about 16 volunteered for the scheme to date, and a school. When any resident volunteers they are provided with health and safety training and provided with equipment that includes litter pickers, hi visibility jackets, gloves and sacks.
The scheme was advertised on the councils website and widely publicised in various publications as well as receiving press coverage, an example from the Windsor & Maidenhead Observer here.
The current scheme with regards to wardens appears to be very efficient as this gives a more flexible council workforce. It’s not a bad thing that the scheme is not fully funded by the FPN as this gives the wardens some discrepancy. There is a cost to this scheme although as its part funded it not as expensive as it could be. There could also be a saving made on reduced costs of picking up litter as street cleaning could become quicker.
It would be a good idea to adopt the warden scheme in Bracknell as having a presence reminds people that droppings litter is not allowed.
The Adopt-a-street scheme is in principal a good idea if you can get enough people interested. Although if 16 people are occupying 16 streets and are picking up litter on a regular basis then that is very worth while. It would be better if all schools can be involved. Perhaps a warden can visit a school and inform the pupils about the scheme. There is also no harm in educating kids as to why littering is wrong. For this to be more worthwhile however more people would be required.
I would like to suggest A clean the town day which could be introduced annually were people are encouraged to go around our local towns on mass (I know this is a bit of a dream but why not). I will be suggesting these ideas to the Bracknell Forest Council.
Litter picks are organised on a regular basis, and campaigns have been carried out in schools to raise awareness of the problems associated with litter, and hundreds of people have made pledges to keep a small local area litter free.
ReplyDeleteMany members of the community 'do their bit'. A great example of this is Take Pride, where voluntary groups don their gloves, pick up their litter-pickers, and clean up their local area. If you or your group want to take part you will be provided with litter pickers and rubbish sacks and the rubbish will be picked up.
Call 01344 352000 to let them know if you can organise an event.
The range of volunteering activities currently available includes speed monitoring, community clean ups and crime awareness patrols.
http://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/living/liv-housing/liv-neighbourhood-action-groups/liv-take-pride/liv-take-pride-what-activities-can-i-get-involved-in.htm
Ths is combined with the NAGs Neighbourhood Forums. Bracknell Forest Council and Thames Valley Police are working together with local communities to target the issues that the public have identified as being the things that matter to them, for example anti-social behaviour, speeding, parking and litter.
http://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/living/liv-housing/liv-neighbourhood-action-groups.htm
If there is a particular problem - Report it at https://my.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/mandoforms/servlet/com.mandoforms.server.MandoformsServer?MF_XML=env-report-a-street-cleansing-problem&MF_DEVICE=HTML
Reporting of incidents is useful, as this informs the CADIS (Community Nuisance and Disorder Information System) database.
As part of the Neighbourhood management strategy, the Neighbourhood Forums raise a range of anti-social behaviour issues. CADIS can be used to analyse anti-social behaviour and to help identify strategic solutions.
http://www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk/living/liv-safer-communities/liv-cadis.htm#infoseen
I regularly pick up rubbish from the street outside my house - it happens to be a popular throughfare for people walking home from Bracknell town.
ReplyDeleteIf we all did this then there would be no litter in our town as litter tends to breed, if people see a pile of it they will happily add to it unfortunately.
A clean up day "annually" may be a laudable idea but it's nowhere near enough if we want to keep our town _continually clean_
Thank you Alvin Finch for so much detail. I will look into Take pride.
ReplyDeleteSteve, Of course you are right annually is not regular enough but it would be a start
I know the blog has moved on from this issue but it is something that needs to be brought to people's notice on a regular basis. As an old biddy I remember being taught 'take your rubbish home with you'. If we each put our rubbish in our pocket until we could transfer it to our own dustbin, there would be far less need for litter patrols. This is partly an attitude of mind. For now I content myself with picking up other people's empty crisp packets wherever I am and disposing of them in my own waste bin.
ReplyDelete