Graffiti Payback Scheme

 Young People Now describe a scheme being run in Enfield:

In an attempt to crack down on graffiti and antisocial behaviour, Ealing Council is piloting a scheme to tackle the problem head on.

Under the Graffiti Payback Scheme, groups of young offenders are made to put right their criminal behaviour and make amends with the community.

The scheme, which is run by Ealing Youth Offending Service in partnership with the council’s ‘envirocrime’ prevention team, has led to many graffiti artists undertaking re-painting work at graffiti hot spots across the west London borough. The work is undertaken under court order and the young people are not paid.

Source: Young People Now

Private Land

Our experience is that fly tipping on private land is often misunderstood by members of the public.  We think that Mediaklik can help.

Traditionally they have written or phoned the local authority to report fly tipping, and have been frustrated when nothing seems to happen.

Of course the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act does give local authorities powers to require owners of land to clean up fly tipping on their land, but it is often a more drawn out process than members of the public appreciate.  The guidance sets out what local authorities can do in more detail:

The Environment Agency and local authorities will be able to serve a notice on a landowner requiring him to clear fly-tipped waste from his land. Notices can be served on a landowner if there is no occupier, or the occupier cannot be found without the authority incurring unreasonable expense. Notices can also be served where the owner is not the occupier if the authority has served a notice on the occupier but either he has failed to comply with the requirement or the notice has been quashed. An owner or occupier has grounds for appeal against a requirement to remove or deal with waste under section 59 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 if he can satisfy the court that he neither deposited nor knowingly caused nor knowingly permitted the deposit of the waste.

The Environment Agency and local authorities have previously been able to serve a notice requiring the removal of the waste on the occupier of land where fly-tipping occurred. The occupier could appeal against a notice if he neither deposited nor knowingly caused nor knowingly permitted the deposit of the waste. However, no notice could be served on culpable land owners where there was no occupier. [more]

Its also often the case that enforcement resources are stretched  making it possible for sites like the one in the photo to become overrun.

While Mediaklik can’t magic away the fly tip what it can do is help explain what the process is to members of the public which use the service.

Because there is the facility to send back text or email messages to anyone who reports an issue the authority can keep them up to date on the progress in finding out who owns the land and what action is being taken to get them to clean up their land.

Lewisham want to Identify Graffiti Vandals (from News Shopper)

One of Lewisham’s local newspapers report on efforts being made by the council to reduce the level of graffiti in their borough:

Last year Lewisham Council removed 25,335 square metres of graffiti at a cost of over £275,000.

Hotspots include: Bankfoot, Rushey Green, Lee Green and Brockley.

It usually takes three hours to remove graffiti with specialised graffiti equipment, with a team of eight staff working five days a week on the problem.

If anyone can identify a tag they should ring enviro-call on 020 8314 7171 and ask to be put through to the graffiti team. Residents can also visit the LoveLewisham website.

A new anti-graffiti coating is also being applied to shops and businesses across the borough.

Of course, if you’re here you’ll probably already know that the Love Lewisham website is powered by Mediaklik technology and that it was responsible for helping Lewisham Council triple the amount of graffiti removed last year at twice the speed, without a significant increase in budget.

Can it

In my travels across cyberspace I came across this video and thought it shows just the right attitude by members of the public in keeping our streets clean.

Double Devolution

 

One of the things we’re pleased about with Mediaklik has been the way that the public have been enabled to direct services through using the product.

This is what David Miliband was talking about when he said this:

Over the next decade, I believe there is a major opportunity to change the way citizens and government communicate and interact with each other.  Lewisham Council already allows citizens to text or photo-message a complaint about graffiti, dog litter or abandoned cars and receive a text back confirming the problem has been removed in less than a day. Information about your neighbourhood is empowering.

camera phones

Via cybersoc I see that, according to a survey for Nokia, 44% of people already use their handset as their main camera.  If that's anywhere near right then the potential of something like Mediaklik to improve our environment is fantastic.

Involving the public

When we were developing the technology that allowed camera phones and handheld computers to send back pictures of environmental problems to the council I was very keen to create an aplication that the public could use as well as giving it to staff and managers in the Environment Division.

Lots of councils have schemes that engage local people in improving their environment - either by encoraging them to report issues when they see them or through enabling them to tackle the problems themselves.  My experience is that this sort of scheme is very valuable but that it only attracts a limited engagement.

What the Mediaklik application offers is the ability to spread the net further engaging with a different section of our community; one that is less likely to come to formal meetings, that doesn't necessarily want a deeper relationship with the authority, and one which is interested in the social application of technology.

In Lewisham where this has been going for the last year or so there are now over 400 registered users reporting environmental problems across the borough.  That's a lot of extra eyes making sure the borough looks better and who think that the council are doing things to improve their environment.