A campaign launched by Chichester District Council to reduce litter in the district has won Gold.
The ‘Against Litter’ campaign was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations as the best community relations campaign of the year at the South of England and Channel Islands Pride awards.
The judges praised the strong community involvement in the campaign, as well as the reduction in litter. They also were impressed by the campaign’s clear message – that littering is a crime and will be treated as one – with promotional materials name checking local areas to encourage grass-roots support.
“We are very proud of what the campaign has achieved and we would like to thank our residents and businesses for supporting it. We feel that this award recognises all of those who have supported the campaign and helped us to keep the district looking beautiful,” says Cllr Roger Barrow, Cabinet Member for Resident Services at Chichester District Council.
“This is a campaign that we are keen to build on,” says Cllr John Connor, Cabinet Member for the Environment at Chichester District Council.
“We now want to extend the campaign further to focus on fly tipping and so this is something that we will be tackling in the New Year. We know how strongly our residents feel about litter, dog fouling and fly tipping and so we are pleased that this campaign is making a real difference. What’s key, is that we work with our local communities and businesses to make the small minority of people who are causing these problems realise that we will not tolerate it. We live in one of the most beautiful areas in the country and we want it to stay that way.”
The campaign aimed to reduce litter and dog fouling across the district and help keep the area looking beautiful. As part of this, the council introduced litter enforcement officers who patrol the district; encouraged residents and businesses to ‘adopt an area’ by working with the council to keep the area looking beautiful; and launching a green dog walkers’ scheme to help reduce dog fouling.
Since launching the campaign:
- the council has seen a reduction in the amount of litter around the district;
- 164 areas have been adopted by residents, community groups and businesses;
- 335 people have signed up to the Green Dog Walkers’ scheme.
The next stage of the campaign will focus on fly tipping. This will include highlighting to tradespeople when they need a waste carrier licence in order to remove waste from a resident’s property. The council will also be informing households about the importance of checking that they are using a legal, registered waste carrier when disposing of DIY waste materials and other household waste.
