The team were awarded the ‘Community Engagement’ prize at this year’s Keep Britain Tidy awards, which were held in Liverpool on Thursday 9 February 2023. 

The team received the awards for their efforts in engaging with members of the public at events throughout Allerdale as part of its #OperationRespect campaign.

In recent years, the team has carried out a programme of engagement, education and enforcement activities across the borough. This has involved speaking with local residents about what they can do to create a cleaner, greener place to live, educating them about the services the council provides and how they can access them, and also taking enforcement action to stop those who either fail to pick up after their dog, fly-tip items, or leave litter in the streets. Partners Tivoli and Allerdale Waste Services also supported this campaign.

It’s estimated that the team engaged with over 1,100 people across all of the events that have been organised in the past year alone. 

The Allerdale Local Focus Hub Partnership led on the Operation Respect days and coordinating with lots of local partners. These have included housing providers Castles and Coasts, Home Group, Riverside, Westfield Housing, as well as Cumbria County Council, Cumbria Police, Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service, Active Cumbria, Allerdale Community Development, Cumbria Family Support Network, Active Cumbria, the DWP, and Family Action.

The collaborative engagement activities have had an incredibly positive impact. Residents were able to gain access to services such as Healthy Start, Family Action support and financial advice. In addition to this, residents were also able to access disposal facilities provided by their housing association. As a result of these activities, there has been a significant decrease in fly-tipping at household waste points; reducing daily fly-tipping reports over the festive period, to an average of once every ten days. 

As a result of the events, the Enforcement Team have also started to speak with other local community groups, assisting them to achieve their environmental goals.

Leader of Allerdale Borough Council, Cllr Mike Johnson said: “I’m delighted to see that the Enforcement Team have won ‘Community Engagement’ award at this year’s Keep Britain Tidy awards.

“The team have engaged with members of the public on a number of levels. We have always wanted to start by preventing an issue becoming a problem, so we have educated people about how to correctly dispose of their waste, the effects fly-tipping has on the environment and how they can easily report incidents of fly-tipping, dog fouling and littering to the council.

“The majority of people want to do the right thing and we are on the side of these people. This is why the education campaign is so important. 

“However, it has been complemented by some really successful, targeted enforcement activity which has caught those who for whatever reason are happy to let their local area look untidy. We take a zero tolerance to this attitude and have successfully fined those we catch fly tipping, dropping litter or not cleaning up after their dog. 

“We set out in our Council Plan the ambition for a cleaner and greener Allerdale, and the team thoroughly deserves this accolade for the work they have been doing to make this happen.” 

Allerdale Borough Council’s Senior Manager for Community Safety and Resilience, Emma Thompson said: “It’s fantastic to see the team being recognised for their hard work.

“Engagement events such as Operation Respect community days held throughout the summer, or the Grime Scene event in Workington held earlier this year, have been vital in providing education to members of the public surrounding what they can do to create a cleaner, greener Allerdale.

“I would like to thank all of the partners involved in delivering the events, including Cumbria Police, Cumbria Fire & Rescue, Cumbria County Council, Allerdale Waste Services, Tivoli, Castles & Coasts, Home Group, Riverside and Westfield for their support in helping our team to engage and educate residents from across Allerdale.”