Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

A clean, green, and safe place to live

Charlotte Brophy | 09.03.2005 15:22

Sofas in gardens, illicit text on bus stops, open drug dealing. Sound familiar? Leeds has the same sorts of problems as any large established city, but there’s one difference, we’re no longer going to stand for it!



Whilst at work recently, I stepped outside on my break for a breath of fresh air I was unexpectedly greeted by a number of promoters dressed from head to toe in litter. Turns out, they are involved in a campaign throughout Leeds City Centre in order to promote ‘cleaning up the city’ to puzzled Saturday shoppers. Quite impressed by the lengths to which they had gone to improve the problem within Leeds I sought out more information. Through talking to other campaigners I learnt that Leeds City Council has launched a massive campaign called the ‘100 days of help and is running from the 26th February to 5th June 2005. This campaign aspires to target many of the issues that are considered to be a problem within our city, including, litter, environmental crime, and anti-social behaviour. The HELP (Healthier Environment for Leeds People) agenda includes a number of key points such as raising the public awareness, and the consequences of anti-social behaviour and environmental crime. They are also working towards making Leeds a clean, green and safe place to live. HELP is working with a number of partners such as the West Yorkshire police and fire services, the home office, Leeds Community Safety and most importantly, us.
The local news is regularly concerned with these issues, but it is a rarity for communities to get involved to try and make a difference. It’s much easier to turn a blind eye and pretend it isn’t happening, we all do it, and therefore it doesn’t seem socially unacceptable not to do anything. This is why Leeds City Council is trying to make it easier to be involved by encouraging the local communities to take an active role through highlighting the consequences of our own and our neighbour’s actions. Around 50 years ago, communities were very close knit, with neighbours’ living out of each other’s pockets, taking pride in where they lived. When ever I think of those times I picture women with a hair nets and rollers, leaning over the fence with a fag in their hands gossiping about something and nothing. I’m not saying I want us to regress to the 1950’s, but whatever happened to connection? I think that one of the aims of this campaign is to tackle the behaviour issue and to actually get people to talk to one another again. Increasingly, anti-social behaviour is becoming a problem, especially around the younger generation in Leeds.
The ‘100 days of help’ hopes to reduce the fear of crime by actually getting communities actively involved in order to feel that they can make a difference, because, it is common knowledge that 40 people dedicated towards changing something will make a difference quicker than half as many.
Litter is also a major target area for the recent campaign, as this issue involves a vast majority of us. Dropping, any sort of litter including cigarette tabs on the street incurs a spot fine of £50. This zero tolerance policy was introduced early this year in a desperate attempt to get everyone to help and be involved in doing their bit for the city without spoiling it for everyone else. Other laws have been put into place from September 2004, such as organisations seen to be distributing flyers the city centre, Hyde Park and Headingley will face a fine. In order to combat these problems production and distribution of cigarette butt holders for smokers and gum disposal pockets are being provided along with new flyer recycling bins in the same areas.
The campaign wants to work with the people not against them, thus trying to create a sense of an ‘old fashioned’ community. Some say that going backwards isn’t the way forwards, but I bet this just might work.

Leeds City Council is eager to get the local communities of every street, every park, every school, every business, and every household involved in the HELP. In order to participate, to do your bit for your city, or for information contact the HELP campaign.
Website: www.leeds.gov.uk
Email:  helpcampaign@leeds.gov.uk
Tel: 0113 398 4760

Charlotte Brophy
- e-mail: C.Brophy7756@student.leedsmet.ac.uk

Comments

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech