Environment
Introduction
We recognise that the cleanliness and maintenance of our streets, parks and estates has a profound influence on how people feel about living and working in Lewisham, particularly their perception of the level of crime. We are creating a healthy, enjoyable environment by keeping our streets and housing estates clean, making parks attractive places to spend time and – in partnership with our citizens – promoting environmental awareness.
Strategic objectives
Environmental services link most directly to the achievement of the Regeneration Directorate’s strategic aim to ‘create a safe, attractive, healthy and sustainable environment for local people’. They also support the aims around ‘enabling and supporting regeneration’ and ‘connecting people to economic, leisure and learning opportunities’ and ‘supporting the development of the local economy and community’.
Performance against 2005/06 top level commitments
Public satisfaction and involvement
Our overall aim is to ensure that each of our key services will exceed the average public satisfaction levels for London by at least 5% (as measured by the annual residents survey). We saw significant improvements again in 2005 in the satisfaction ratings for these key services:
- satisfaction with refuse collection rose by 5% to 80%, exceeding the London average by 7%
- satisfaction with recycling facilities rose by 8% to 63%, equalling the London average
- satisfaction with street cleaning rose by 4% to 60%, exceeding the London average by 6%.
We have worked with local communities to improve the quality of their local environment through the NEAT (Neighbourhood Environmental Action Team) initiative. We ran a number of activities for our Street Leaders, including a thank you event, two open door events and a Christmas event.
Twenty-three schools took part in the Clean and Green schools programme and 15 businesses registered for the Business Environmental Excellence Awards. We also supported the Lewisham Walking Festival, which took place in May.
Delivering the best for our streets
We have successfully undertaken a range of initiatives to drive up recycling and composting rates, including:
- introducing a weekly collection of five materials across the borough
- improving the bring site service provision, including the ‘Moo Cross’ feed the cows project in New Cross
- launching the Green Box Lottery and the Recycling Champions initiative
- touring the estates and distributing recycling sacks to residents
- distributing free compost bins with Lewisham’s Guide to Composting book
- distributing the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle book at community events with the Waste Education Trailer.
We continued to publicise and encourage use of our innovative ‘Love Lewisham’ webpages, allowing residents, visitors and businesses to report environmental problems using mobile phone technology – and then track our progress in dealing with them. This initiative has been shortlisted for a Local Government Chronicle Award.
We have used the Local Environmental Quality Survey data to develop a programme to deliver the cleanest streets in London. The percentage of land that is of an acceptable level of cleanliness is currently 21% against a target of 25%, although we will not know our final figure, for the year, until early summer.
We also:
- continued to implement a strategic approach to graffiti removal, ensuring that key areas of the borough are graffiti free at all times by targeting town centres and known graffiti hot spots
- ensured graffiti was removed quickly and effectively following report –averaging just under one day for removal against our target of three days
- worked closely with local residents, tenants’/residents’ groups, community groups and local businesses and raised awareness of how the Council is tackling graffiti. We trained 18 residents and 20 businesses as graffiti busters. We now inform businesses of their duty of care to keep their premises clear of graffiti, building a joint working relationship which will help ensure graffiti is removed as quickly as possible.
- collected 99.97% of our bins on time
- investigated and prosecuted where necessary all instances of enviro-crime, and expect to achieve our targets of at least 350 fixed penalty notices and 110 enviro-crime prosecutions
- continued proactive surveillance on known fly-tipping ‘hot spots’, and in some areas have been able to stop the fly tipping
- produced an enforcement policy setting out what the community can expect from our service and what is expected from the community, in line with the Government’s Enforcement Concordat. The policy will be sent out with all relevant letters from the service, to ensure that people understand our approach.
Delivering the best for our parks
We:
- have the highest number of green flag award parks in London, retaining green flags for Manor House Gardens, Chinbrook Meadows and Sydenham Wells Park and gaining two additional green flags for Telegraph Hill Park and Brookmill Park
- won the Urban Green Space category of the Local Government News Street Design Awards 2005 for Ferranti Park and Sue Godfrey Nature Park
- were awarded Silver Gilt in the city category of London in Bloom (the highest award given in this category)
- actively supported the work of the Friends and Users of Staplehurst Road Shops (FUSS), who were judged as outstanding in the neighbourhoods category of London in Bloom
- were awarded £875,000 from the EU LIFE Environment fund for the QUERCUS project to deliver environmental improvements.
Environmental health
The Food Service now inspects all relevant businesses fully in accordance with Food Standards Agency requirements. The local authority partnerships with the Health and Safety Executive continue to flourish and a number of collaborative projects have been carried out with local businesses to reduce accidents and injuries at work.
Pollution Control fulfilled all GLA requirements relating to noise mapping and air quality monitoring.
Dealing with noise nuisance
We fell just short of achieving our 98% target for noise nuisance complaints having an initial response within 30 minutes . We exceeded our 93% target for complainants receiving a visit within 45 minutes (if needed), achieving just over 98%. Although we do not expect to secure 40 prosecutions, this is offset by the significant results we have achieved in resolving complaints with a positive informal outcome – just over 89% against a target of 55%.
Key commitments for 2006/07
Public satisfaction and involvement
Lewisham’s residents are the judge and jury of our success. Our aim is to increase public satisfaction with Lewisham’s environment and our target remains that each of our key services should exceed the London-wide average by at least 5%.
We will continue to work in partnership to develop and improve community engagement education programmes and initiatives, including:
- Neighbourhood Environmental Action Teams
- Street Leaders, including an annual event
- Clean and Green Schools
- Business Environmental Excellence
- Recycling and Composting Champions
- Lewisham Walking Forum.
Delivering the best for our streets
We will continue to provide an efficient, high-quality and sustainable approach in the management of waste, through commitment to the principles of the waste hierarchy, sustainable development and best value.
We will continue our programme of education and information to increase recycling and composting participation rates.
We will continue to improve the quality of the local environment, using the Local Environmental Quality data to achieve the cleanest streets in London through a number of programmes and initiatives.
We will also:
- continue to implement a strategic approach to graffiti removal, working with businesses to raise their awareness of their obligations to remove high-level graffiti
- continue to provide a highly efficient and more proactive graffiti removal service
- collect 99.98% of our bins on time
- investigate and prosecute where necessary all instances of enviro-crime, aiming for 130 prosecutions and 400 fixed penalty notices, covering illegal practices such as abandoned vehicles, noise nuisance, fly tipping and littering
- continue to efficiently remove abandoned vehicles, untaxed vehicles and vehicles for sale on the public highway.
Delivering the best for our parks
We will for 2005/06:
- retain the five green flags already awarded to our parks
- go for an additional green flag for Eckington Gardens
- enter again for the London in Bloom competition and aim to win the city category
- successfully deliver the QUERCUS (Quality Urban Environment for River Corridor Users and Stakeholders) project to include partners in Chester and Hertogenbosch, Netherlands; the project will deliver environmental improvements along the Ravensbourne corridor between Lewisham and Catford, taking in Ladywell Fields
- bid for Heritage Lottery funding to regenerate Mountsfield Park.
Environmental health
The Pollution group will put in place the first phase of the Contaminated Land Strategy. This should assist in ‘cleaning up’ some derelict sites and bringing them back into use.
The Health and Safety Service will be heavily involved in partnership with the Health and Safety Executive on a new initiative. The intention is to focus on an area of concern (this year – trips and falls) which is a particularly troublesome problem.
The Food Standards Agency is keen to make information available on the food hygiene status of local food businesses. We are involved in a collaborative project which will enable people to access this information via the web. People will then be able to see whether their local restaurant or shop is properly looking after health matters.
Dealing with noise nuisance
We will set challenging targets both for our initial response to noise nuisance complaints and for visits, where they are necessary. Our overall target of 110 enviro-crime prosecutions will include a target of 20 prosecutions for noise nuisance.
Markets
We will undertake a search of the borough for possible future market sites and, if successful, we will attempt to develop a new market. We also plan to acquire new computer software to improve the market licensing procedures.
