Birmingham City Council’s civic pride campaign is moving into a whole new ‘clean and safe’ phase – tackling fly-tipping on council-owned land and private land right across the city – and offering every household a “ Safety Pack” to help them avoid becoming victims of crime.

The You Are Your City campaign, made a real difference to the cleanliness of the city’s streets, and in recognition of the link between grime and crime, the council and partner organisations are now giving out information packs that will help people feel safer in their neighbourhoods.

Launching the campaign, Councillor Sir Albert Bore, Leader of Birmingham City Council says “ Litter and crime have consistently been the top concerns of Birmingham residents and the city council is committed to doing all we can to make a difference as part of our priority of creating flourishing neighbourhoods. We will clean up as much as we can, we will encourage people to keep their neighbourhood clean and also will take the necessary enforcement action to help it stay that way”.

ALL wards of the city will benefit – starting with those wards most blighted by fly-tipping.
The list of wards and their clean up operation schedule is below.

The clean-up teams will spend one month in each of the wards, clearing as much fly-tipped waste as possible, before moving on to the next ward. There will be public meetings so that local people, Councillors, Ward Lead Officers and environmental wardens can get together and using their local knowledge, identify hot-spots which need clearing. They will also look ahead to how these improvements can be sustained, by, for example, securing the land, involving the community and effective regulation to prevent further flytipping or vandalism. The meetings will also address ward based fire and crime prevention issues including identifying existing projects in the ward and how residents can protect themselves.

On the crime and safety front, the city council has set a Public Service Agreement target to reduce burglaries by 28% and accidental house fires by 17% by 2004. Achieving these targets will enable us to access £2.3million per target of Government cash, to use for community safety initiatives, to benefit the people of Birmingham. We are working with our partners to ensure we reach those targets.

To raise awareness and help people avoid becoming victims of crime, safety packs have been produced by the city council, West Midlands Police and West Midlands Fire Service, containing information on “clean and safe” issues. The packs also contain an ultra-violet pen to ‘security mark’ valuables and useful contact telephone numbers. These will be distributed at Neighbourhood offices, via public ward meetings, “Meals on Wheels” deliveries, and through Victim Support and other organisations. The packs are available to every household through a hotline 303 9999 and via the website www.birmingham.gov.uk/cleanandsafe.

There are now nearly 100 wardens operating within the city with 12 regulatory ward based schemes already operational and more in the pipeline. In the last 12 months nearly 1,000 Fixed Penalty Notices have been served. Innovative joint working with other agencies has flourished, for example Operation Clean Sweep in which the Police and the Environment Agency, working with our Regulatory Services, have caught large numbers of people operating illegal rubbish removal, which results in flytipping.

Schools and youth centres will be joining in this campaign, with the launch of “You Are Your School”. Young people will be encouraged to take pride in their school environment and the local community with litter clear ups, by painting murals and improving the landscape around schools and youth centres.

Mick Rice, Cabinet Member for Local Services and Community Safety, says “We will be holding a series of community meetings prior to each clean up to involve the community in the work we are to carry out in their area. We will also be encouraging people to use their Neighbourhood Renewal Fund via their ward meetings to make the changes necessary such as change of use, landscaping, or developing sites in a way which will benefit the community”
Vij Randeniya, Asst. Chief Fire Officer, West Midlands Fire Service says “ We are pleased to support this campaign, as rubbish including flytipping can blight the local environment and provide an opportunity for arsonists to strike.”

Chief Superintendent Dave Shaw, says “ We welcome this partnership approach to tackling “crime and grime”. Surveys have shown that the issue of crime is linked to the environment in which people live. We believe we can help improve people’s quality of life and add to their feeling of security by helping to clear up their environment.
He added “The safe pack gives easy to use, common sense advice on how to help protect you, your family and your property. Reading this and carrying out the suggestions in the pack, will reduce the likelihood of being a victim of crime and help the Police to arrest those responsible when offences occur.”