Great Yarmouth is piloting a scheme which sees eight volunteers regularly patrol parts of the town to check how clean its streets and public open spaces are.
Community Connections has been funded by the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and Great Yarmouth Local Strategic Partnership to measure the effectiveness of the street cleaning services in the central wards of the town.
Community Connections is working in partnership with Great Yarmouth Borough Council and GYB Services. Trained volunteers managed by the charity monitor six wards and ensure that if problems with litter, graffiti, detritus (grit, sand or leaves in the gutters) or fly posting is severe that it is dealt with within 48 hours.
The Street Scene Assessment team is the latest initiative Community Connections has become involved with.
As well as community development work and the provision of CLIP offices, it also helps residents where English is not their first language who need aid with translation, people who lack numeracy and literacy skills, and provides training in subjects as diverse as construction, floristry, and food hygiene through its college in the community scheme.
The street scene assessors work in wards which have problems maintaining good standards of street cleanliness: Central and Northgate, Yarmouth North, Southtown and Cobholm, Nelson, Claydon and St Andrews.
“Our teams of volunteers inspect given areas and assess them scoring from A which is free from any problems, to D where there are extensive problems,” explained Street Scene Team Leader Michael Brackenbury.
“We feed the information back to GYB Services Dynamic Environmental Response Team (DERT). It responds and clears the problem within 48 hours, if it is a D rating the priority will be higher still.
“We go back within a week to ensure that all work has been carried out.
“In other areas of the country the local authority would be judging itself on whether it is doing a good job - but as residents of the town we are the people having a say.
“But of course it can only work when the community itself takes responsibility for keeping its neighbourhood clean, and we hope that seeing us about and understanding that we are residents too will show that ordinary people can help to make a difference.
“It is important that individuals take pride in their community, as research shows that there is a link between people who carry out antisocial acts such as graffiti or fly-tipping (thereby having a small regard for other people or their property), and acts of petty crime in a locality.
“The Street Scene team is looking at other initiatives such as a supermarket car park watch. We want to build up a comparative picture of how local supermarkets keep their car parks litter free, as the state of these large spaces impacts upon the local resident’s quality of life and environment.
“There are also plans to go into schools later in the year to talk to young people about the problems caused by litter and graffiti.”
Some of the Street Scene volunteers are part of another Community Connections initiative Grey to Green Spaces, funded by the Neighbourhood Management Team, which is looking at ways to make small areas in the town more valuable to residents.
“We have identified 45 possible locations where actions as simple as planting a tree, laying grass or providing a bench could turn an untidy space into a place for residents to use,” added Michael.
“There are many disused areas behinds buildings known as bleaches. They were used in the 19th century as laundry areas for people servicing the hotels, now they are abandoned and used for fly-tipping, parking or have just become eyesores. They could provide valuable recreational areas.
“We have held two special events, at St Jame’s Walk and Swires Place, where we have pitched a marquee offered tea, coffee and biscuits and invited residents to sit down and tell us what their community needs.
“This has not only been about using these kind of spaces but also our Blooming Good Ideas scheme. It has seen people jot down ideas on paper flowers which we then collate and hand the information on to the relevant organisations.
“Concerns are as wide as problems with drug taking, people running through neighbourhoods after pubs close and knocking on doors and windows, motorbikes being ridden through a play area, to the need to provide open spaces for young children and teenagers to play in.
“We also take along a mobile CLIP office so that residents can see the range of help and advice on offer. Community Police support offices also join us to explain their services.
“Some of the positive results we have had so far are that the DERT team has gone in and cleaned up areas - and we have liaised with a gate designer to provide solutions for a passageway which needs a gate.”
Michael Brackenbury, Community Connections and the Street Scene Assessment Team can be contacted on 01493 656372.
To report incidents of fly tipping or graffiti call GYB Services on 01493 846846.