tidybs5 | Steve Woods

Help local councils take action against littering from vehicles

26/05/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Politics, Social Media

Where litter belongs. Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
For as long as I’ve been going abroad to the mainland of Europe – some 45 years – one aspect that I’ve never failed to notice is just how clean other countries are compared with the United Kingdom. During my first visit to Germany in 1975 the streets – compared to those in UK – seemed clean enough to eat one’s dinner off.

It’s unfortunate that despite the decades of campaign efforts of Keep Britain Tidy and local campaigners throughout the country, the United Kingdom remains the dirty man of Europe. A stroll down any street or road in the country will readily confirm this if readers have any doubts.

A major element in littering is stuff dumped out of cars by the lazy and uncaring. This ranges from small stuff like cigarette butts to discarded fast food packaging from meals eaten on the move, right up to really nasty stuff such as used disposable nappies.

The UK is a very scenic country – why trash it?

Why indeed?

38 Degrees Petition

There are other people equally concerned about the amount of litter in the UK and a petition has just been posted on 38 Degrees.

The introduction to the petition reads:

This petition is calling for local councils in Yorkshire and across England to be given new powers to fine people who litter from vehicles. Littering shouldn’t be a consequence-free crime and enforcement acts as a deterrent as well as a punishment. The Government already approved the necessary legislation in 2014 but Defra has delayed producing the required regulations for over a year. This delay must end.

Why helping councils with enforcement is important

The petition’s explanatory text continues:

Clearing up litter costs Yorkshire councils over £77m a year, contributing to the national figure of over £800m. Clearing roadsides is particularly costly and dangerous, so preventing littering from vehicles is extremely important. Local councils said for many years that they needed new powers to fine people who throw litter from vehicles, as a £75 fine will make most people think twice before throwing litter again.

The existing law, in the Environmental Protection Act 1990, said the council needed to prove which person in the vehicle threw the litter – something that was mostly impossible. The Government agreed to introduce a new law, via the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, which meant local councils can issue a fine to the registered keeper of the vehicle, which is what happens when vehicles are caught speeding and or are parked in the wrong place.

To make sure councils know how to implement this new law, the Government needs to provide them with regulations. However, the department responsible – Defra – has delayed these regulations for over a year and councils are no nearer to being able to take action against litterers. This also means there are now two pieces of legislation on litter that are essentially useless.

The Secretary of State must make sure her officials are taking the required action to bring this legislation to life and to prevent further littering from vehicles.

Sign the petition.
Tidy BS5: plus ça change…

18/05/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Politics

Coming into the Bristol Wireless lab this afternoon,I found that the weekend spring clean by 2 of our volunteers had thrown up a copy of “renewal“, bylined “the newsletter of Easton and Lawrence Hill Neighbourhood Renewal” dated March 2006, over nine years ago.

Turning to page 12, the subject matter seemed to have a familiar look to it, as per the scanned and cropped page below.

Fly-tipping, litter, rubbish, graffiti: these all sound like themes currently receiving the attention of the Tidy BS5 campaign by local residents and councillors, ably assisted and supported by Up Our Street.

The 2006 article then goes on to give telephone numbers for residents to call to deal with these matters. The telephone number for reporting street cleaning matters and abandoned cars, etc. has since changed to 0117 922 2100 and readers may find it more convenient to report these and other problems online.

The fact that so little has changed, reminds of a quotation from the late Tony Benn.

There is no final victory, as there is no final defeat. There is just the same battle. To be fought, over and over again. So toughen up, bloody toughen up.
Tidy BS5: reporting online

15/05/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Politics, Tech
Everywhere one travels in the United Kingdom, the common perception of residents is that their council is useless and costs too much.

Bristol is no exception to this commonly accepted opinion of local authorities.

In the past your correspondent has been no stranger to criticising Bristol City Council. However, there is one aspect of its operations where praise is due; and that’s its online presence. Compared with some local authority websites I have visited, Bristol City Council’s ranks amongst the best in my opinion. Indeed this blog has in the past praised Know Your Place, where one can get an intimate knowledge of the city and its long, proud history (posts passim). The open data section is worth a browse too.

Fly-posting: report it online

This amazingly useful online presence is also apparent if one is concerned with street care and cleaning in Bristol. This is where one can report and obtain information on all kinds of problems encountered in urban steets.

The following can all be reported online:
- Abandoned vehicles;
- Removing dead animals from the street;
- Dog & animal fouling;
- Drug & sex-related litter (i.e. needles, syringes, condoms);
- Fly-posting and graffiti;
- Fly-tipping;
- Grass cutting (on council-owned land);
- Litter and overflowing litter bins;
- Street & road problems, i.e. blocked/smelly road drains, damaged road bollards, damaged kerbs or pavements, noisy or faulty manhole covers/potholes, damaged bus stop or timetable information and trees and hedges causing an obstruction on the highway.
Graffiti or overflowing bin? Report it online

Reporting road and cleaning problems online is by far the most convenient way of letting the council know of any problems encountered and as such can help to expedite their remedying, so get reporting. Most problems seem to be resolved within the promised 2 working days, although I must point out to any passing councillors and/or BCC officers that the system does occasionally break down.
A chance meeting

29/04/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Politics

Walking down Stapleton Road this morning, I stopped to take the picture below in readiness for reporting the fly-tipping to Bristol City Council.

The gentleman passing on the right of the picture and half caught by the camera saw what I was doing, thanked me effusively and shook my hand when I told him I was reporting it to the council.

We then had a brief conversation about how such anti-social behaviour detracted from the pleasantness of Bristol, which he described as a “beautiful city”, the health implications of fly-tipping and the way they encouraged the spread of vermin such as rats (posts passim).

As we parted with waves, he asked me whether I was a member of the Green Party. Unfortunately I have no affiliation, but that’s no barrier to being an active and caring citizen.
Big turnout for the Big Clean

30/03/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Media, Politics
Saturday 28th March dawned grey and drizzly for the TidyBS5 Big Clean organised by Up Our Street and local residents.

For your correspondent it dawned even earlier; the alarm clock was set for 6.00 a.m. to ensure he was sufficiently awake to be interviewed down the line about TidyBS5 and the event on BBC Radio Bristol by their Saturday breakfast show presenter Ali Vowles.

However, the rain did not put off an amazing 33 people – including one PCSO from Trinity Road Police Station – turning up at Lawrence Hill roundabout at 11.00 a.m. to help remove litter from the area for a couple of hours. Indeed, such a number of participants was so unprecedented that more litter pick equipment had to be ferried down from the Up Our Street Office.

Photo courtesy of Lorena Alvarez

Also amongst the hardy souls who turned up was a contingent from the Good Gym, which takes exercise out of the gym. Members runs to a venue, help a local community project and then run back. Your ‘umble scribe is very pleased we attracted their support.

Photo courtesy of Lorena Alvarez

Local councillor Marg Hickman also attended to show her support. Wouldn’t it be good if we could get Bristol Mayor George Ferguson to turn out for the next one and put some physical effort into Bristol’s year as European Green Capital? 😉

After receiving safety instructions (avoid picking up broken glass, no needles, etc. Ed.) we then scattered to various sites around the area to get work.

Photo courtesy of Anthea Sweeney

Areas cleaned included:
- The grassed island in then centre of Lawrence Hill roundabout;
- The grassed area fronting Lawrence Hill at the end of Payne Drive;
- Public open space along Croydon Street;
- The old course of the River Frome beneath the railway adjacent to the Coach House off Stapleton Road; and
- The area of grass and shrubbery alongside the former Earl Russell pub (the ‘Big Russell’. Ed.) and Lidl on Lawrence Hill.
A fantastic amount of rubbish was removed and collected later in the weekend by Bristol City Council.

Photo courtesy of Lorena Alvarez

Well done and many thanks to all who took part.
Trade insults BS5

26/03/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

Bristol City Council’s streetscene enforcement officers (the local authority’s litter and fly-tipping police. Ed.) are currently active in the Stapleton Road area of Bristol 5.

One of the major problems with which they’ve been getting to grips is that of traders fly-tipping in the streets and dumping their waste in the communal bins intended for household waste only.

Trade waste – in this case lots of flattened cardboard packaging – fly-tipped by a communal bin in Pennywell Road, Easton

Tidy BS5 campaigners are actively assisting the enforcement officers in the efforts by identifying suspected offenders and directing officers to regular sites for the fly-tipping of trade waste.

Traders are supposed to pay for their own waste disposal. By abusing the facilities provided for residents, they may be saving themselves money on their waste contracts, but are also insulting the community whose members constitute their customers; and that has to stop.

So far, the council has handed out 5 fixed penalty notices of £300 each to local traders for waste matters and more are clearly needed before their work is done, if it ever will be.

In the meantime, if you’ve got time free on Saturday, don’t forget to turn out for the Tidy BS5 Big Clean community litter pick, meeting at 11 a.m. at Lawrence Hill roundabout. Yours truly will be rising slightly earlier as BBC Radio Bristol wishes to interview me on its breakfast show.

Last but not least, yet another reminder about signing the TidyBS5 e-petition!
TidyBS5 news

17/03/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

A week ago yesterday, there was a meeting of the TidyBS5 task force with council officers and Councillor Marg Hickman at the offices of Up Our Street.

It was a good opportunity for the officers to update community volunteers on what the council has done, is and will be doing.

Jane Street in Redfield earlier today

For Stapleton Road a deep clean is planned for this year; this will mean giving the footways a thoroughly good scrub and removing chewing gum from their surfaces. In addition, hanging baskets will be provided on approx. 30 lamp posts to help make the street a bit more colourful and attractive.

The city council’s streetscene enforcement team has now moved into the area and has already had some success: 5 traders have been issued with £300 fixed penalty notices for abusing the communal bins intended for household waste only. In addition, some minor offenders have been fined smaller amounts.

Turning to communal bins, task force members have been invited to assist in devising the communal bins consultation that the council is organising for the Stapleton Road corridor. Two task force members, Hannah and myself, informed officers that we were monitoring clearance times after fly-tipping had been reported. From my own monitoring since then, communal bins seem to be implicated in some 60% of sites notified to the council.

After the update from the offices, it was pointed out to them that, while all this attention being lavished on the Stapleton Road area was appreciated, it should not detract from equally bad problems along the Lawrence Hill/Church Road corridor, home to the infamous Jane Street (see above).

During my discussion on social media with BCC’s Chief Enterprise Architect Gavin Beckett about open standards (posts passim), he invited me to submit feedback on using the council website; this will be done from the aspect of reporting street cleaning matters, where the website still has a couple of interesting foibles.

Up Our Street is organising a community litter pick on Saturday 28th March from 11 am to 1 pm. Volunteers are asked to assemble at Lawrence Hill roundabout (map). For more details, contact Lorena on 0117 954 2835.

Finally, don’t forget to sign the TidyBS5 e-petition!
Highlighting a foul practice

16/03/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

Dog fouling is one of the banes of modern life; it’s filthy, a health hazard and – as any local councillor will tell you – a permanent source of correspondence for them from the electorate.

Over in Bedminster someone has been patrolling the streets and highlighting the problem of dog fouling by spraying the canine visiting cards left in public places with yellow paint, as shown in the example below from Stillhouse Lane.

Over in BS5, there’s someone else who also goes round the Easton and Redfield areas with a spray can of paint attacking dog faeces, in this case spraying them fluorescent green.

Bristolians can report dog fouling online to the City Council, who respond quickly to the laziness of dog owners who cannot be bothered to clean up after their pets.

In closing here’s a final reminder to those who let their dogs foul the streets and don’t clean it up: it’s an offence that could land you with a fine of £80, which might be a little more inconvenient than stooping and scooping. 🙂
Is this yours, George?

10/03/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Oddities, Politics

Spotted on the pavement opposite House of Fraser, Cabot Circus, Bristol – one red bra.

Whose could it be?

There’s one person in Bristol who is well known for wearing red – the city’s elected Mayor, George Ferguson.

It is suspected that George has shed his clothing in public before, notably in Easton (posts passim).

Could the Mayor’s secret penchant for transvestism or covert gender reassignment finally have been revealed? If so, when will George tell the citizens of Bristol?

That’s a matter for George’s conscience and our speculation.

However, turning to serious matters, shedding clothing on the highway is technically littering. Bristolians can report litter, fly-tipping, graffiti, dog fouling and the like online via the links on the city council’s street care and cleaning page.
TidyBS5 petition goes live

03/03/2015 Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

There’s now a petition online calling on Bristol City Council to increase its efforts to get a grip on litter and fly-tipping in its Easton and Lawrence Hill wards (posts passim) and make scenes like the one below of Jane Street in Redfield a thing of the past.

Image courtesy of Amy Harrison

The text of the petition reads as follows:

We, the undersigned, petition Bristol City Council to enforce penalties for fly-tipping and dropping litter and find lasting solutions to these two problems. Easton and Lawrence Hill wards have for many decades suffered from both litter and fly-tipping. Where communal household waste bins have been installed, residents have found that they are used by people from outside the area for disposing of their waste, as well as local traders abusing them to dispose of trade waste. The fly-tipping sometimes involves hazardous materials. Litter and fly-tipping also encourage the presence of vermin such as rats. In some places the communal bins are also used as a cover for unhygienic actions such as defecating and urinating in the street, making them unsafe for children to play in.

Templates for collecting signatures on paper have also been sent to local councillors Afzal Shah, Marg Hickman and Hibaq Jama, as well as Up Our Street.

Sign the petition.

38 Degrees Petition

Why helping councils with enforcement is important

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