EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / In one short paragraph please describe this project and what it has achieved.
We will use this in any future publicity material.

The Environmental Community Action Team (ECAT) supports the work of Glasgow City Council’s Clean Glasgow initiative at a strategic and operational level. ECAT directly engage with individuals, residents’ groups, faith organisations, schools and businesses and encourage them to take an active role in addressing local neighbourhood environmental issues. This is achieved by supporting environmental enhancement activities to tackle “grime crime”, which often indicates levels of antisocial behaviour. ECAT take the lead on organising and supporting activities such as community clean-ups, graffiti removal, tackling fly-tipping, fly posting, dog fouling and community gardening on derelict or disused land. In the period 2009-2010 ECAT engaged with 12,174 members of Glasgow’s community and got them actively involved in clean ups. This resulted in 20, 659 hours of clean up activity, which is the equivalent of 2,500 working days of enhancement work.

PLANNING / · a clear rationale, defined processes and focus on stakeholder needs
· contributes to organisation’s goals, community plan and SOA, and national policy context

Litter is a social and environmental problem experienced all around the world, and Glasgow is no exception.A significant amount of core budget is spent every year cleaning up litter and improving its physical environment. Litter and environmental incivility affect the quality of life of Glaswegians, the experience of visitors, and the overall image of the city.

The re-launch of the Clean Glasgow initiativein 2007was brought about as a result of the following factors:Failure of efforts to date, despite efforts made by core services, Glasgow retained the reputation of a dirty environment, Consistent issue for Glasgow citizens supported by household surveys, Threat to tourism product and 2014 Commonwealth Bid.

Every effort was being made by core services to improve on the visual impact of cleanliness in the City but more had to be done. A media campaign was launched and a web based portal to measure the response of Glasgow residents to wanting to become involved in contributing towards making Glasgow a cleaner place. The response was so high that it initiated the launch of the Clean Glasgow campaign. An integral part of the campaign was the formation of the ECAT service to deliver locally designed action plans utilising local residents. As part of the overall strategyLand and Environmental Services would deliver mitigation strategies and ECAT through GCSS would be responsible for the delivery of the reduction strategy. The key objectives of ECAT are:

  • To support organisations to undertake community clean-ups of public spaces throughout Glasgow
  • To support individuals to monitor and take action to improve their local neighbourhood, and influence other Grime Crime direct service delivery.
  • To drive a sustained change in public attitudes, leading to a long term reduction in grime crime, and fear of crime.
  • To tackle the environmental injustice that often affects the most deprived communities in Glasgow.

In this regard ECAT meets the local objectives of making Glasgow a safer, cleaner and vibrant city and delivers outcomes specific to local need through intelligence led identification of issues in partnership with the communities and key partners. This intelligence led approach provides an effective and monitoring and evaluation process through which to evidence the measurable impact on the community and residents both in terms of soft and hard outcomes. For example photographic evidence and community feedback before and after the ECAT activities, volunteers’ feedback etc provides a wealth of material to demonstrate how the service is community responsive and valued.

Each activity is linked to community priorities and planned in line with achievability in line with resources and volunteering support available within an agreed timeframe in partnership with the community and partners. This ensures that, barring bad weather or unforeseen circumstances, ECAT services and support deliver to the aspirations and expectations of all stakeholders in through realistic planning and delivery protocols.

The focus was placed on challenging behaviors contributing towards “grime crime” and empowering community member to produce local action plans to address local environmental issues. ECAT have formed a vision of Glasgow being a clean city where people take responsibility for, and feel pride in the city’s appearance.

Strong correlation also exists between urban decay and onset of anti-social behaviour and as such ECAT core aims supports key company objectives of making Glasgow a cleaner place and providing community reassurance in relation to antisocial behaviour and crime. There are also direct links to local and national strategic objectives within the safe and vibrancy themes.

ECAT contributes to the National Strategic Objective for a Safer, Stronger Scotland, as well as linking to Glasgow’s Strategic Themes of creating a Healthy, Vibrant, and Safe Glasgow.

DELIVERING / · implemented in all relevant areas and across all the required stakeholders
· carried out in a structured and logical way , using robust and sustainable methods

Central to the Clean Glasgow initiative is the Clean Glasgow Reduction Action Plan. There are nine ECAT officers within the team each having individual responsibility for delivering services across Glasgow’s ten Local Community Planning Partnership (LCPP) areas allowing ECAT to deliver servicesat a local level addressing local problems.

A key aspect to ECAT activity is the outcome of the Glasgow Local Environmental Audit Management System (GLEAMS). 100% of the streets in Glasgow are subject to a quarterly audit under GLEAMS. GLEAMS measures observations on the following:

  • Litter, Fly posting, Fly tipping, Dog Fouling, Graffiti, Vandalism, Weeds, Detritus

Recording, auditing and evaluating using this system allows ECAT to make targeted action plans in order to improve on the outcomes of GLEAMS thus improving the overall cleanliness rating of Glasgow’s streets.

ECAT works in partnership with a variety of internal and external services to achieve their goals. Key elements of ECAT activity includes:

Education & Awareness - ECAT utilise the assistance of GCSS Schools Support Officers to deliver litter and graffiti lessons to all primary and secondary schools in Glasgow. ECAT then develops upon this lesson plan by helping the schools conduct environmental surveys and organise clean ups. They help the schools source their own equipment, devise action plans and assist with their establishmentto achieve prestigious environmental awards and certificates.

Enforcement - ECAT devise and co-ordinate action plans that involve enforcement measures in instances when engagement has not been effective. This includes enforcements from GCSS Community Enforcement Officers, GCC Public Health and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency in the form of Fixed Penalty Notices.

Community Involvement - ECAT deliver services by engaging with local residents at local level to create bespoke action plans in relation to “grime crime”. This level of community involvement empowers the community to be a part of solving their own issues creating a more sustainable approach to Glasgow’s cleanliness problems. From this concept of community involvement we have the development of the Neighbourhood Improvement Volunteers (NIV) scheme. This facet of ECAT activity allows volunteers to represent the community in tackling cleanliness issues giving access to enhanced service delivery.

Partnership Working - Partnership working is at the heart of ECAT activity. ECAT are represented on each of the City’s Local Operational Working Group. This forum brings together members of GCSS Locality based staff, Land and Environmental Services, Housing Associations, Strathclyde Police and Strathclyde Fire and Rescue. This is a platform utilised for problem solving in relation to larger scale environmental and antisocial behaviour problems. ECAT also works very closely with GCSS Community Reparation Service for large scale enhancement work as well as the provision of planters and other garden furniture.

INNOVATION + LEADING PRACTICE / ·Demonstrates leading practice
·Achieves genuine innovation or new ways of working

A cornerstone of ECAT network is the Neighbourhood Improvement Volunteers (NIV) scheme. ECAT works closely with these groups and individuals to encourage ownership of their neighbourhood areas to help them develop longer term strategies to make their communities safer places to live, work and visit. There are over 200 NIV networks working selflessly across the city within their own neighbourhoods championing the battle against grime crime. NIVs adopt zones within their community and are engaged in submitting surveys which grade the cleanliness of their local streets, reporting grime crime issuesfor a rapid response,organising anti-litter campaigns and promoting the Clean Glasgow agenda to their friends and neighbours. The NIV scheme, in addition to developing processes for environmental enhancement, provides cohesion, community spirit and lasting legacies for the people of Glasgow. NIVs lead by example and provide positive role models for others to aspire to.

ECAT works proactively to support local, and Police, action plans, a large percentage of which have environmental enhancement as one of their three key priorities. ECAT liaise with the Police, Strathclyde Fire and Rescue, Glasgow City Council, GCSS Uniformed Services and other partner agencies to gain vital intelligence to intervene and develop strategies for the prevention of fire setting, drinking dens, fly tipping and other matters of antisocial behaviour that arise as a result of environmental decline. The main outcome of this action is an increase in the public’s confidence and a reduction in their perception of crime.

Another innovative idea has been the development of an “intelligent mapping” system. This is an analytical and performance management tool that allows ECAT and other service providers to determine resource requirements and a holistic overview of environmental issues. Antisocial behaviour and fire setting hotspots can also be overlaid onto this mapping system to ensure targeted delivery of services benefitting the community the most. ECAT is viewed as a model of good practice by Keep Scotland Beautiful.

RESULTS + IMPACT / · a convincing mix of customer perception and internal performance measures
· clear line of sight to the delivery of the Single Outcome Agreement
· a full range of relevant results showing improvement over time

Household Survey (Autumn 09): demonstrates notable improvements on all indicators from October 06 baseline survey. The information below is based on people’s perceptions of specific issues being a problem in their area. In 2006 for example, 76% of those surveyed perceived litter as a problem in their area. By 2009 this had fallen to 34%

20062009

• litter 76% 34%

• graffiti 66% 22%

• Fly-posting 59% 9%

• Fly-tipping55% 14%

• dog fouling50% 44%

Results and Impact Financial Years 2007/2010

Apr 2007-Mar 2008 / Apr 2008-Mar 2009 / Apr 2009-Mar 2010
Number of school, community & business clean-ups undertaken. / 140 / 283 / 636
No of volunteers actively engaged with GCSS through ECAT (clean ups) / 4,429 / 5,554 / 12,174
Number of volunteer hours involved in the Clean Glasgow campaign. / 12,890 / 14,167 / 20,659
Number of Fine or Time events completed * / N/A / 7 / 10
Number of people attending Fine or Time events. / N/A / 64 / 71
Number of areas/zones adopted by NIVs / N/A / N/A / 140
Total Number of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) issued / 4,698 / 5,038 / 5,443

Fine or Time events give people who have been issued with Fixed Penalty Notices the choice of whether to pay the fine or pay in kind through devoting time to work in the community.

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