Havering Council has launched a new campaign to encourage residents and community groups to work with the Council to help make the borough a cleaner and safer place to be.
The Where We Live campaign hopes to empower communities to take pride in their neighbourhoods by actively taking part in community clean-ups, litter picks, reporting fly-tipping and tackling and adopting ‘grotspots’ that could be made into more pleasant community spaces.
This in turn reduces anti-social behaviour and makes streets safer.
The Council officially launched the campaign today (Wednesday 16 October 2024) at Frog Island, Rainham, the site of the borough’s main waste facility.
A mountain of litter and fly-tipping, which totalled between six and eight tonnes was on show – equating to just one day of cleaning up by our waste and environment teams.
Attending the launch was Councillor Ray Morgon, Leader of Havering Council, Councillor Barry Mugglestone, Havering’s Cabinet Member for Environment, Imran Kazalbash, Havering’s Director of Environment and representatives from ELWA [East London Waste Authority] and FCC, the Council’s waste collection partner.
Campaign themes
- Raising awareness - Informing residents about how they can get involved and encouraging them to report issues more.
- Building community pride - Supporting and participating in community improvement activities (clean-ups and local projects).
- Identifying neglected areas (‘grotspots’) for clean-up, planting and community adoption.
- Encouraging small tasks for residents and Council staff to work together to take up small tasks and helping to reduce pressure on resources.
- Highlighting safety and environmental initiatives - Showcasing Council actions to make the borough safer, tackling issues and including a crime summit to be held in early 2025.
Councillor Ray Morgon, Leader of Havering Council, said:
“Our aim with our Where We Live campaign is to enable us all to have pride in our local neighbourhoods in the borough.
"To help to make Havering a cleaner, greener and safer place to be.
“As well as showing how our Council services carry out their daily duties and respond to reports from residents,
"We also want to empower our communities and our residents to have pride and take part in activities themselves.
“This will help to make where they live, work and go to school nicer, safer and even more enjoyable places to be.
“This could be something small like cutting a grass verge or litter picking, to improving a ‘grotspot’ or joining volunteers for a mass clean-up.
“As we all know, small actions can lead to big changes and if we do this together, we can all love Where We Live.”