Littering Task Force

[sandra]

I was shocked to see the amount of littering enforcement officers around East Dulwich over the past few days. I agree with the fact that littering should be stopped and the people who dropped litter in the streets should be cautioned but I think in this economic climate the council have taken on and are paying staff to do this job, whereas we the tax payers are having to subsidise these people. Already money is very tight for alot of people and I would rather my tax be paid to people who are actually patrolling our streets so that people are not afraid to go out. I know of a friends whose children walk home after school and are terrorised by other children in the street. MAKE OUR STREETS SAFER!

[SeanMacGabhann]

" we the tax payers "

I'm one - and I support the litter task force. Litter is a completely different problem to crime and bullying. Litter is easily dealt with. Crime and bullying less so and MUCH more expensive. I don't want to live in a tip while the bigger problems get sorted

Using "this economic climate" and "money is tight" should not be an excuse. Dear God if I worked for a council I would be so fed up with damned if you do and damned if you don't attitudes

[Brendan]

These guys serve a very important purpose. They stop estate agents from dropping cigar butts on the street. Now cigar butts are degradable and not really a litter problem but annoying estate agents is as important public service.

[shoshntosh]

quite agree with seanmac.

and also, rudy guiliani "cleaned up" new york by starting with its appearance, citing that people are influenced by their environment. it does matter. if the place looks like a tip people are more likely to behave disrespectfully.

i am wildly anti-littering.

[Strawbs]

SeanMacGabhann Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> " we the tax payers "

>

> I'm one - and I support the litter task force.

> Litter is a completely different problem to crime

> and bullying. Litter is easily dealt with. Crime

> and bullying less so and MUCH more expensive. I

> don't want to live in a tip while the bigger

> problems get sorted

>

> Using "this economic climate" and "money is tight"

> should not be an excuse. Dear God if I worked for

> a council I would be so fed up with damned if you

> do and damned if you don't attitudes

^

exactly that

[Mark]

I fully support the littering task force. Clean streets make for a more respectable place, more respectable means people are prouder of their area and that's a good thing.

Please consider the "fixing broken windows" strategy from the book of the same name:

"A successful strategy for preventing vandalism, say the book's authors, is to fix the problems when they are small. Repair the broken windows within a short time, say, a day or a week, and the tendency is that vandals are much less likely to break more windows or do further damage. Clean up the sidewalk every day, and the tendency is for litter not to accumulate (or for the rate of littering to be much less). Problems do not escalate and thus respectable residents do not flee a neighborhood."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixing_Broken_Windows

This approach was adopted in New York and helped make it and keeps it a better place.

"MAKE OUR STREETS SAFER!", I agree.

[edited once]

[Strawbs]

I wish someone would pick up all the litter at the station and the wardens would patrol the station so people would stop throwing things over the fence, it looks appalling and reflects badly on the area..

[ed_pete]

In a way the council are making the streets safer by clearing up litter. Take a look at this research published in New Scientist that confirms the link between environments that aren't cared for and street crime.

[Jeremy]

Genuine query... have council budgets actually been significantly impacted by the recession?

[kristymac1]

Jeremy Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Genuine query... have council budgets actually

> been significantly impacted by the recession?

Those who have/had considerable investments in the Icelandic Bank have had budgets cut, not sure if Southwark fall into that category or not.

[Marmora Man]

Genuine query... have council budgets actually been significantly impacted by the recession?

Logically they should - reduced income from tax revenues at central government, businesses closing - thus losing business rates and defaults on mortgages leading to losses of council taxes, should all equate to a sensible matching reduction in costs. At present this is not the road that government is taking - for reasons that some would support.

Personally I would prefer that Southwark Council looked carefully at its budget and determined what was essential spending and what was discretionary - and cut costs in that way. I would vote personally for losing the free magazine "Southwark Life" and similar vanity publications / activities, tho' I doubt we'll see that happen. An in depth review of the budget might reveal other possible savings.

However, it was cheering to note that Boris Johnston has successfully argued the case for not increasing the Mayor's precept on our council taxes and financed the static budget by dispensing with much of his predecessor's vanity projects - transferring the spend to more important areas.

[Moos]

Have a look at the Stop the Drop campaign for information on what councils spend on litter cleanup.