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Spring clean in Worksop targets areas blighted by litter and graffiti

Cheapside After

Environmental services officers have dedicated more than 400 hours to removing fly tipping waste, litter, graffiti and overgrown shrubs and weeds as part of a major safety campaign.

Officers from Bassetlaw District Council have undertaken a huge environmental clean-up as part of their efforts to make Worksop’s public spaces feel safer, particularly for women and girls.

The work has been funded by the Safer Streets 3 project – a Home Office initiative being led locally by Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry to reduce violence against women and girls and reduce their fear of crime.

In research undertaken by the Commissioner as part of the first Safer Streets project in Newark in 2020-21, local people rated environmental improvements such as litter removal and cutting of overgrown trees and hedging as the second highest priority when asked what action needed to be taken to make them safer.

Following the completion of the project, more than 40 per cent of residents said the environmental clean-up work had made them feel safer.

Back in the autumn, officers in Worksop carried out an environmental survey to determine areas in urgent need of cleaning and maintenance.

In total, 55 environmental issues were identified across 24 locations.

Since then, 404 hours of cleaning and maintenance has been undertaken across a number of key areas including Cheapside, Castle Street, Bridge Street, Lead Hill, Dock Road, Church Walk, Canal Road and Memorial Avenue.

Work has included the removal of graffiti, repainting of railings, weed and shrub tidying, litter clearance, bollard repainting and maintenance of flowerbeds.

Commissioner Henry said: “There has been a huge effort to improve the look and feel of key public spaces in Worksop with officers investing long hours into removing graffiti, weeds and brambles to make the area more appealing.

“We know from surveys that an unkempt and untidy environment makes people feel unsafe.”

“Environmental cleaning is a vital part of the Safer Streets project and compliments a whole host of measures aimed at making people, especially women and girls, feel happier and more confident about where they live. There is much more to come and we will continue to work together as one team, beyond this project, to make a difference.”

Cllr Julie Leigh, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods at Bassetlaw District Council, said: “Enhancing the appearance and feel of our streets and surrounding areas contributes to a wider sense pride and responsibility in the community. We are proud of the hard work that our Environment Services Team has put in as part of this partnership, in addition to the regular street cleansing they undertake each week.

“Improving the confidence and safety of people living in these areas, as well as those who use these routes to visit the town centre, was a core aim of the project and I hope that our clean-up efforts can have a real impact and make people feel safer.”

Commissioner Henry successfully secured £550k from the Home Office’s Safer Streets Fund as part of a £23.5million national pot set aside by the Government to reduce violence against women and girls.

As part of a partnership between Commissioner Henry, Bassetlaw District Council, Nottinghamshire Police and Nottinghamshire County Council, the funding will deliver additional CCTV, upgraded street lighting and extra police visibility patrols as well as a host of training programmes and workshops for young people and adults to tackle misogyny and harmful behaviour that underpins violence.

In addition, Worksop will benefit from five new refuge points each containing two state of the art 4G HD Safer Refuge CCTV cameras providing women with access to the police control room at the push of a button.

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Posted on Friday 8th April 2022
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