Litter picking.

[Noodley]

If I suggested putting up bird boxes would risk assessments for working on ladders etc make it a non starter?

Is funding for materials and equipment hard to find or is there a budget for it?

Bird boxes? The team I manage have erected bird boxes, bat boxes, fox dens....no problem.

Budget? Yes, there's a budget. It depends on the project as to who pays...

 

[longers]

Excellent. Glad I asked now, thankyou.

Groundwork is a great suggestion too Dan.

 

[fossyant]

Litter picking is a good start......no bugger round here would do it....

Don't know how you start the lazy buggers getting out of their houses for a bit of CV activity...

Me, my 9 year old, and a couple of neighbours dug the road out for about 200 folk... in early Jan..........FFS........... the rest...looked on in their living rooms..... this nation is dead shortly with lazy buggers..............

PS It was great fun...........

 

[Maz]

I joined in a litter-picking session organised by a local church group. I wouldn't mind going again, if I get the time to do it.

 

[Cubist]

If I suggested putting up bird boxes would risk assessments for working on ladders etc make it a non starter?

Is funding for materials and equipment hard to find or is there a budget for it?

It could well be that your local Crime and Justice Coordinator will have access to funding.I'll see what I can dig out for you. The payback scheme is being rolled up in the Justice Seen, Justice Done initiative. Here in Kirklees we are using money seized under the Proceeds Of Crime Act to pay for community projects, and thus squaring the circle.

 

[Cubist]

Longers, your local authority is indeed a Crime and justice pioneer area, as recommended in the Casey report. The link lists them and the press release describes the intent.
http://press.homeoffice.gov.uk/press-releases/crime-justice-pioneer-areas.html

Harriet Wilkins is the coordinator for Oldham.

 

[Crankarm]

Some one's rubbish is another's treasure .

As for litter dropping scum I'm with coruskate - snipers in trees.

A new football pitch was built just north of town about 3 years ago and ever since this has been open the amount of debris and detritus chucked from cars onto the rural verges and into hedges has been growing exponentially. It's all these thick fat knuckle dragging scum that are attracted to the football ground who come out and then chuck their drinks cans and fast food packaging, crisp packets and bags of rubbish into adjacent hedges and fields. It really is a pity that the feckers can't be used as target practice, I am serious. Despoiling the environment should a be serious offence.

All for getting cons to clear it up, as on the outside, they were probably chavs in chav cars who chucked the rubbish there in the first place.

For sites suffering frequent fly tipping - covert surveillance, follow the feckers, find out where they live, then get a few skip loads of pig sh1t dumped on their doorsteps. See how they like it. Heheheheheeeeee.

 

[longers]

Thanks for that Cubist.

Presumably filling in the form on your first link will be all I have to do?
It seems too easy

I still like the idea of getting local residents involved and doing some myself but the community service route does sound very very easy.

 

[Cubist]

Thanks for that Cubist.

Presumably filling in the form on your first link will be all I have to do?
It seems too easy

I still like the idea of getting local residents involved and doing some myself but the community service route does sound very very easy.

The online form is a sort of request line, giving the public the opportunity to have a say in where the Comunity Payback Teams should go, but getting involved personally is a bit of a different matter.

If you want to try to galvanise the locals a bit you need to get hold of the above mentioned Harriet, or the Neighbourhood Policing Team for where you live. Links via this site:
http://www.gmp.police.uk/live/nhoodv3.nsf/index-divisions.html?ReadForm&Division=Oldham
They will tell you where you can attend a public meeting to discuss concerns and local priorities, or give you some idea of the community groups already working in the patch.

There may be a local community forum for you to attend (sometimes called a Ward Forum) or a local Neighbourhood Management Group or similar where tidying up the area should feature somewhere on the agenda. If not, and litter is a concern, badger them to do something. They should leap at the chance of quick cleanup.

 

[Creamcrackered]

I could bore for Britain on litter picking - I even have website all about it http://litterheroes.co.uk
Personally, I find it more convenient and more enyoyable to just go out on my own rather than on an organised litterpick. If you organise a litter pick involving other people you will need to think about insurance cover e.g. if one of your people gets hit by a car or injures themselves. Also, big one off litter picks aren't that effective - the stuff comes back very quickly. It's more effective if you adopt a particular area and do it regularly.
http://www.litteraction.org.uk/ has details of local groups you can join.

 

[Cubist]

I could bore for Britain on litter picking - I even have website all about it http://litterheroes.co.uk
Personally, I find it more convenient and more enyoyable to just go out on my own rather than on an organised litterpick. If you organise a litter pick involving other people you will need to think about insurance cover e.g. if one of your people gets hit by a car or injures themselves. Also, big one off litter picks aren't that effective - the stuff comes back very quickly. It's more effective if you adopt a particular area and do it regularly.
http://www.litteraction.org.uk/ has details of local groups you can join.

Great site, very inspirational Creamcrackered.

 

[661-Pete]

+1: excellent site Creamcrackerd. Makes me think: I really ought to do more about it. Fly tipping is one of my biggest gripes, and it certainly is a big big problem down our way. Where we live is just on the verge of a newly-created National Park (South Downs) but that doesn't stop 'em.

Alas! A lot of the fly-tipped stuff is just too big for an individual to pick. When we get fridges, sofas, builders rubble, even a complete domestic oil-tank (why on earth would someone want to fly-tip that?).

One of the most satisfying, and yet at the same time disturbing, organized litter-picks I went on, some years ago, was in Cuckmere Haven - a popular tourist beach and wildlife reserve now right in the heart of the new National Park. Beaches are a special case because some of the refuse will obviously be flotsam and jetsam washed ashore by the tide: i.e. dropped at sea somewhere else. But not all of it. We'd done a pretty good job at the end of the day, but it was especially worrying, the number of used syringes we turned up (we were with a party of children, and of course the kids had strict orders not to touch any syringe, leave it to the adults). Remember, I'm talking about a beach popular with children.

 

[Arch]

Alas! A lot of the fly-tipped stuff is just too big for an individual to pick. When we get fridges, sofas, builders rubble, even a complete domestic oil-tank (why on earth would someone want to fly-tip that?).

To avoid paying commerical tip fees....

If I may stick up a hand for recycling? I don't know what sort of litter it is, and the quantities, but it would be even more useful if the picked up stuff was sorted so that recyclables (tins, bottles, possibly plastic bottles depending on your council) didn't just go into landfill. If there was a lot, you might even be able to get money for the aluminium cans (might depend on having space to stockpile from numerous picks), if not, then at the very least they can go into separate facilities for recycling. The volunteers here at St Nicks pick litter and which is then sorted and put in our specific skips. Steel and Ali are easy to sort with a magnet (although we 'experts' do it pretty much by feel and sight...)

Some of the sorting is done by people with learning difficulties, mentored by their case worker. That might be another useful source of 'labour', any local charity that provides activites for such people - it's outdoors, fresh air, and if the community did get involved, it's useful interaction with new people, under a controlled situation. In fact we have one guy comes out and works with us regularly, he had a brain injury, and can manage the job, with careful supervision, and apparently since he's been doing it he's come on in leaps and bounds, and is heading for a halfway house in terms of rehab. Just having a routine, and interaction with us, has apparently helped a lot.

 

[biggs682]

i have always said make the unemployed do this kind of work before getting there benefit

 

[Crankarm]

Cycling home about 10pm this evening, pouring with rain, just left town behind, passing the newish football pitches on the outskirts, then in the middle of nowhere, lots of drinks cartons and fast food polystyrene boxes lying in the middle of the road. Did a big right left wobble to avoid them as they emerged from the darkness. This rubbish must have been chucked out by the same f'kin chav scum who chucked a bag of rubbish at me start of October last year similar time as I rode home. Make these knuckle dragging pond life scum pick up all the litter then shoot them so no more gets dropped .