Case Study - Fenland

Staff join volunteers in clean up

Fenland District Council managed to turn around their environmental services and involve their own staff among over 100 volunteers in cleaning up public spaces. It is now one of the cleanest districts in the country, with rocketing recycling and composting rates.

Fenland District Council came up with its ‘Street Pride’ scheme to foster community pride among its own staff. Council staff now regularly participate in weekend litter picks accompanied by community groups at sites across the district. The Street Pride Volunteers have worked with local community groups to litter pick and improve several Fenland areas throughout 2006. Over 100 volunteers have spent more than 400 hours cleaning up public spaces.

"Our philosophy is simple: as we can’t achieve our vision in isolation we need to involve partners and the local community" said Sandra Claxton, Deputy Chief Executive.

The volunteers were runners-up in the prestigious Guardian Public Service Awards, in the Good Citizenship category. The award recognises schemes that promote good citizenship by public service employees.

Robust enforcement action

The Street Pride Volunteers is only one example of the recent environmental successes of Fenland Council. The council has worked on prevention measures, quick intervention and taking robust enforcement action. The programme name PIE stands for the key words Prevention, Intervention and Enforcement.

PIE is the delivery vehicle to achieve ‘Streets Ahead’. In order to achieve their objectives the scheme is managed by a cross-section of senior managers from the council, i.e. not involving one service area only. Streets Ahead is one of five corporate priorities, making it possible to adopt a whole authority approach.

By operating in a joined-up way, it is possible for smaller local authorities to provide effective and cost efficient street scene.

More enviro-crimes reported

More than 200 extra enviro-crimes have been reported since the Street Pride scheme was introduced; and addressed by the council’s rapid response team. Concerns about fly-tipping prompted the introduction of two rapid response teams.

The outcome was significant with collection times reduced from 10 days to 24 hours. Children have designed logos for the ‘bring bank’ recycling sites and kitchen caddy schemes. Furthermore, an exhibition trailer has been introduced to target hard to reach communities with £20,000 funding from Defra. One of the wards in Fenland has seen a reduction in graffiti since an environmental action day organised in 2006.

CCTV is used for deterring and detecting crime. The introduction of 54 CCTV cameras district-wide, resulted in 937 captured incidents and 225 arrests.

FEET, Fenland Environmental Enhancement Team, consists of community partners committed to improving the local street scene. The probation service provides free labour for the enhancement work which is coordinated by the council. Exercises include graffiti removal, painting, litter picking, shrub pruning, and removal of rubbish and debris, etc.

Rocketing composting rates

Fenland’s recycling and composting rates have rocketed from 8 per cent to the top quartile; the amount of waste going to landfills has been reduced; and a three-bin waste and recycling system with £20,000 funding from Defra achieved Beacon status in 2006. Currently, Fenland Council recycles 32 per cent of all waste it collects, compared with the local authority average of 18 per cent.

The roll-out of the scheme saw 60,000 bins distributed free to homes across Fenland. The council expects to top the 40 per cent mark over the next year, and recycle more than half of its waste the year after. A customer satisfaction survey shows that 78 per cent of customers are either satisfied or very satisfied with the new bins scheme and the waste recycling efforts of the council.

The council is now going to target reducing waste at source. This will entail a district-wide campaign to educate people on how to reduce their waste, e.g. by taking the message into every school; running road shows; and working closely with town and parish councils. The Streets Ahead team has produced a video supported by resource material, which they are ready to share with local authorities.

For more information, please contact Carol Pilson on 01354 622360 or at cpilson@fenland.gov.uk