A hundred local people turned out last night (19 March 2015) to help find solutions to improve their local environment. The meeting, held at Beeston Village Community Centre, was organised by the Inner South Community Committee.
Introducing the session, Cllr Adam Ogilvie that this is an issue close to all the local councillors’ hearts and the issue which produces the most enquiries. The budget for street cleaning was devolved to the Community Committee 18 months ago and although they can’t increase spending, given the cuts, they can direct resources to local priorities.
Chris Nederdeck who manages parks across the city and environmental services in the South and East of the city said there was a mixed picture in dealing with litter. There has been some great volunteering events with the public helping to clear up areas such as the canal towpath, but there is still an education problem to stop people dropping litter in the first place. He said the council spends £12 million every year picking up other people’s litter.
The meeting then broke into groups with residents encouraged to discuss issues with their ward councillors and local enforcement officers.
Summing up the workshop, Martin Dean, the Council’s Area Leader identified the following key messages:
- Lots can be achieved by working together on the ground. Many residents are happy to pitch in and work with the council.
- We can support people especially the vulnerable to help them do the right thing to keep their community clean and tidy.
- There is support for Council enforcement against those who do the wrong thing especially dog fouling.
South Leeds Life is happy to play its part by publicising initiatives, giving information about services and reporting on prosecutions and other enforcement actions.
It was a very good meeting and I was gutted to of needed to dash off before the end. Full credit to the Inner South Committee for setting this up and good to see residents from across the area as well as local representatives from each ward there with officers.
I certainly think one key thing I got from the meeting was the idea of replicating what is done with our park lands and setting up a “Friend of…” type groups for many of our estate areas and using that not just to support keep the local area clean but as mentioned in the article, to help support some of our more vulnerable residents who with all the will in the world would maintain items such as their gardens but aren’t up to the challenge anymore.