Many streets in London do fall below par in terms of their cleanliness. Councils and organisations like ENCAMS (behind the Keep Britain Tidy campaign and facilitates the Capital Standards programme in London) are all too aware of this, hence are working together to try and combat it.
The Capital Standards Programme was established in 2002 as a programme to improve local environmental quality in London through partnership working and the sharing of best practice between councils and other organisations. Over 600 enforcement officers have been trained through its enforcement academy and over twenty eight thousand portable ashtrays were given out across London to smokers ahead of the smoking ban earlier this year.
The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is keen to find out what plagues every town, city or rural area in England the most. Recognising that each authority area is different Defra commissioned ENCAMS to survey every local authority area in the country to assess levels of graffiti, fly-tipping, litter and dirt.
The surveys started last year and the first half of have already been completed, summaries of which are available to view on the Directgov website. This means that eventually everyone can log on to the internet and have a look at how their area fairs.
London faces perhaps the toughest challenge when it comes to keeping its streets clean. With a part-transient population made up of tourists and visitors alike, it’s hard to educate people to not drop litter and make the streets a mess when they’re here one day and gone the next. It also makes enforcement a little tricky too – you can’t follow up an on the spot fine when the given address it the other side of the world.
But they’re certainly not reasons to stop trying to improve. A good place to start is looking closer to home. For those who work or live in London, it’s vital they take pride in the appearance of their communities by using litter bins, not dumping junk on streets or waste ground or tarnishing walls with graffiti.
The first year of an annual campaign to spruce up London called ‘Capital Clean-Up ’ saw councils working with organisations including the police, Love London and Thames 21 to encourage the public and businesses to get to grips with grime in their neighbourhoods.
Although London as a whole faces challenges, local environmental problems are individual to each borough. Having these independent surveys carried out by ENCAMS is a great way for each authority to address the issues that are pertinent to them.
A recent Capital Standards survey showed that there have been slight improvements in litter and dirt levels, small they may be, but we hope they can be built on so everyone who visits, works and lives in London will be able to enjoy a clean capital.