City wardens win award
KEEP BRITAIN TIDY PRIZE FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICE
THE work of city wardens has won a Keep Britain Tidy award.
The council team, responsible for tackling littering, fly-tipping and other unsightly mess, was in the running for Waste Performance of the Year and triumphed in the Outstanding Service Delivery category.
The nominations followed a ninemonth campaign, which ran to October, to tackle fly-tipping, waste, bins on streets and other problems in Fosse ward.
A total of 117 businesses were inspected, 16 of which were issued with fines totalling £4,800 after not responding to legal notices.
The area had seen 971 incidents of fly-tipping between January and December 2018.
The team also issued 37 notices about bins left on streets and used community protection notices to warn people they faced action over fly-tipping, side waste and untidy land.
Wardens attended community meetings, distributed posters and leaflets in hotspot areas and met with community leaders as part of the campaign.
The work led to an 18 per cent reduction in fly-tipping and a 9 per cent increase in people using council services, such as bulk waste collection, compared with the same period in 2018.
The Keep Britain Tidy awards were announced at the charity’s annual Network Conference in Birmingham on Thursday.
Assistant mayor for neighbourhoods, Councillor Kirk Master, said: “Our city wardens team has been operating for just over 11 years.
“In that time it has developed good working relationships and knowledge of neighbourhoods throughout Leicester, working with residents on campaigns like this to help create a safe, pleasant place to live.”
Keep Britain Tidy chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton said: “People want to live in places that are clean and tidy and local authorities have a massive role to play in this.”