DRAFT
Respect for Nottingham – 100 Day Clean-Up
May 25th will see the start of a 100 day of clean-up of Nottingham.
As part of the Respect for Nottingham initiative, the City Council is embarking on a campaign which will last until September 1st which will see the shine brought back to the streets of the city.
Respect for Nottingham is a £2.25 million initiative being led by the City Council, Nottinghamshire Police and the One City Partnership Nottingham aimed at reducing crime and grime in the city. One of the key objectives is to make a visible improvement to the condition of the local environment.
The campaign’s goal is to make Nottingham a cleaner city, as well as changing people’s attitudes to litter and fly-tipping to deter “enviro-crime” from taking place in the future. In addition, the hope is for local communities to take more pride in their own area, to make it pleasant for themselves, and welcoming for others.
Extra funding has been provided by the Government in addition to the finances offered by the Respect for Nottingham programme, and this is going to be used to increase the number of cleaning projects taking place in the city.
Additional resources have been acquired to help in the clean up. 40 new street wardens will be patrolling the city, with the power to hand out on-the-spot fines of £50 to anybody caught dropping litter. New street cleaning staff are also being dispatched, as is a new “street scrubber” which will brighten the city’s paving stones, restoring them to their normal colour by shooting jets of water on them and removing the day-to-day grime which builds up.
In addition, new refuse collection vehicles will be deployed to clear up areas prone to fly-tipping.
Meanwhile, efforts will be made to tidy up the walls in the city by removing graffiti and flyposters.
Advertisements for bands, acts and clubs have already been removed from areas such as Shakespeare Street in the city, with the project due to spread further out to remove flyposters from many more locations.
In addition, the city’s graffiti cleaning team will be out and about removing spray paint from walls. This, along with the City Council-backed “Name That Tag” reward scheme, means that the people of Nottingham can get involved in making sure the graffiti does not come back.
Even though there are a number of new efforts being put into place, the City Council cannot fight the battle against grime by itself. Adverts around Nottingham will encourage people in the city to be more thoughtful over what they do with their litter, which should help to keep Nottingham tidy beyond the 100 Day Clean-Up.
The City Council is also asking staff to do their bit by keeping the entrances and public areas of the authority’s buildings tidy, for example, by not putting out cigarettes on the ground. Please dispose of your rubbish responsibly.
The hope is that by September 1st, people in Nottingham will see the difference that has taken place over the previous 100 days, and be inspired to keep it clean for everybody to enjoy. The 100 Day Clean-Up starts on May 25th; please help wherever and whenever you can.
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Alun Michael's speech to LGA 7.5.04 –
"But I underline again the need for strong political leadership. Yesterday I visited Nottingham and I saw at first hand the benefits of a clear corporate commitment to cleaner, safer, greener communities. Nottingham's respect campaign covers local environmental quality and related anti-social problems, they made the link between things like litter, begging, street prostitution and drugs. And by making corporate commitment Nottingham has given service delivery departments the backing they need to tackle the issues. There was a sense of confidence amongst the people I met, they have sent a clear message to the public that the council is taking its duty seriously and they have achieved measured improvements such an 85% reduction in begging. And during the time I was there we talked about fly posting, chewing gum and looked at some of the practical work that is going on, on the ground."
[Last updated – 2004-05-20]
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