(£2000 plus £2000 match funded from Environmental Services)
Residents and Councillors voted to spend £2,000 of the £10,000 annual community fund (2006/2007) on an anti-litter campaign to raise awareness of littering. Environmental Services agreed to match fund this amount and manage the campaign. Local ward councillors agreed the target area as residents had highlighted the area along Forest Road from the Wood Street Junction to the Bell Corner and down to Lloyd Park and from the Bell Corner to Chingford Road to Sir George Monoux School and the side roads bordering off Chingford Road as an area of concern. This is mainly due to the high concentration of fast food outlets.
It was agreed that there should be a two pronged activity, education and awareness followed by enforcement.
DVD
A three-way partnership was formed with Walthamstow West Community Council and Waltham Forest Environmental Services jointly invited Sir George Monoux College and Waltham Forest College to collaborate on producing an anti-litter campaign DVD.
The brief was to produce a two-minute DVD by young people that communicated to an age range of 16 to 25 years of age. The DVD will be launched at the college inductions and also used throughout the year in tutor groups.
Five students participated in the making of the ‘Don’t be bitter, the price is bitter’ DVD. They each contributed their time and energy outside of college term time and in their summer holidays. The students developed the idea and storyboard for the film shoot, directed and carried out the filming using professional cameras and sound equipment. They then finished the two-minute DVD with some careful visual and sound editing. The process for the production of the DVD took many days with hours and hours of footage captured that then had to be whittled down to just two-minutes to make a punchy Anti Litter campaign advert.
The making of ‘Drop the litter, the price is bitter’ was a new experience for each student where they were learning new skills in developing a concept and planning the shots, using technical equipments and using editing software to design and finalise the film.
Walthamstow West and Waltham Forest Environmental Services would like to thank the students for their commitment, dedication and enthusiasm in making this film and value their involvement.
Competition
All students from Waltham Forest College and Sir George Monoux School were invited to take part in a competition as part of the Anti-Litter Campaign. Students are asked to describe in no more than 50 words their idea as to how to stop people littering. A prize of £100 in vouchers is offered for the best entry from each college.
The judging panel consisted of Philip Herlihy, Walthamstow West Community Chair, Cllr Patrick Smith, Walthamstow West Councillor Chair and Martin Esom, Executive Director Environmental Services. The winners will be announced very soon.
Enforcement
The Highways Enforcement Team will be distributing specially designed posters around the area identified for the campaign. These posters have been specifically designed and will carry the message ‘Don’t Be Bitten Twice’ i.e. by the rats that litter attracts and by the Fixed Penalty of £75.
Once the educational period of the colleges induction and posters have taken place the Highways Enforcement Team will be patrolling the area at particular times of day, when the area is more highly populated by pedestrians, to carry out enforcement action by issuing Fixed Penalty Notices.
These patrols will be carried out both in an overt and covert manner on different days.
Patrols will be carried out in partnership with the Police Safer Neighbourhood Teams, who are also authorised to issue Fixed Penalty Notices for littering on the Councils behalf.
