Case Study - Cleaner Cambridge Campaign

Voluntary campaigners make Cambridge cleaner

The Cleaner Cambridge Campaign is an independent campaigning group whose aim is to raise awareness and explore potential solutions to litter and other street cleanliness issues.

The group, which was formed a decade ago, is composed of citizens, councillors, university representatives and council staff. While there is a core of members – all voluntary – the group is dynamic in its make-up, with attendance varying dependant on the issue to be tackled.

The group has no official funding, but in line with the logo – ‘Working Together to Keep Cambridge Clean’ – it has developed innovative approaches to local and national businesses, the local council and individuals to engage with those particular projects that the group is working on. This usually means providing resources, goods and/or expertise.

Cooperates with the council

General publicity on matters tackled by the group is often combined with Cambridge City Council funded campaigns. The group also applies for local grants to support its work on particular projects.

"The success of the Cleaner Cambridge Campaign seems to be down to its non-confrontational approach, preferring persuasion to change behaviour and leaving the stick approach to others." - Bob Kerry, Street Services Development Officer

‘The Great Cambridge Litter Pick’

The Great Cambridge Litter Pick, for example, was a partnership with a restaurant chain that provided staff, products, design and printing of promotional material. City Centre Management provided a jazz band and the council provided officer time, equipment and a litter disposal facility.

Teams of litter pickers comprising restaurant staff and pupils from a Cambridge school walked from two restaurants on opposite sides of the city, meeting the Mayor at the central restaurant in Market Square.

‘Pick and Punt’

In 2006, the group wanted to tackle the problem of litter in the river Cam, which runs through the middle of Cambridge. This is a major tourist attraction, not least for punting. The group, in partnership with a local punt company, encouraged residents, students and visitors to ‘Pick and Punt’ by litter picking from the waterways whilst punting along the river.

The event was promoted by the Wildlife Trust and was used to raise awareness of the natural waterside environment. Scudamores Boatyard provided the punts for a nominal charge which was then donated to the Wildlife Trust. The event was featured on the ITV programme ‘Big Clean Up’ in 2006.

The Laundress Green partnership

Laundress Green is a small island in the river that is heavily used as a picnic spot in the summer by visitors and students. Local riverside businesses and the city council wanted to tackle the litter problem. The aims were to keep Laundress Green looking clean, supplement city council litter management, encourage a collective responsibility, reduce the amount of litter entering the river, and increase recycling of street litter.

Some of the measures undertaken to achieve this included coordinating resources and having additional litter picks at peak times carried out by staff from the local businesses. This resulted in the provision of street litter recycling bins, which are supervised and not contaminated. The recycling scheme started with cans and glass and is to be extended to paper and plastic bottles in 2007.

Alcohol from two of the three licensed premises is now being sold in reusable plastic cups with a returnable deposit. This has resulted in a 75 per cent return rate with a further 15 per cent of cups being collected by staff. The overall result is a public open space that people find clean and an enjoyable place to picnic and generally relax.

300 pints of urine

Late-night street urination is a problem, particularly in the city centre, with an impact on both residents and businesses. Cleaner Cambridge Campaign led on an initiative to use portable street urinals – ‘Pee-pods’ – which were hailed as a possible solution. Over 300 pints of urine were collected in a one-night trial close to Christmas in 2004.

In 2005 the city council piloted the deployment of Pee-pods every weekend over the festive period. This confirmed that there was a need and in 2006 the council agreed to purchase and use Pee-pods every weekend throughout the year.

Taking on challenges

A practical example of the success of the Cleaner Cambridge Campaign is the introduction and support of free workshops in schools on the topics of waste and litter. The Campaign lobbied the council to provide funding for a street sweeper to go into primary schools to create awareness of issues relating to litter. As a result the council now funds workshop sessions which enables regular school visits to take place. The funding was mainly needed to cover those hours when the officer is unable to undertake sweeping work.

For further information, please contact cleanercambridge@cambridge.gov.uk