District Dispatch - 26 March 2024

Our street cleansing team travel across the 303 square miles of the district each day, cleaning the streets, emptying the bins, and picking up litter. However, as you can imagine, over such a large area, they can't be everywhere at once.

That's why, a number of years ago, we introduced our Against Litter campaign to bring everyone together in the fight against littering and to encourage people to take pride in their local area. The aim of the campaign is to engage with our local communities and empower them to take positive, preventative actions, as well as encouraging local businesses to get involved. The campaign has been nationally recognised by the Chartered Institute for Public Relations, who awarded the campaign a Gold PRide award because of the positive impact it has had.

The campaign is still going strong, and people are still signing up for the schemes associated it, but we thought it would be good to remind people of how they can get involved.

One of the ways you can help us is to report litter hot spots and fly tips and you can do this by visiting ourChichester District Council 'report flytipping' page. Littering is a crime and those caught littering or not clearing up after their dogs will receive an on-the-spot fine of £100 (reduced to £75 if paid within 14 days). You can also help us by taking your litter home — and recycling as much of it as you can — or dispose of it in a litter bin.

You can also sign up to our 'adopt an area' scheme. This invites community groups and businesses to 'adopt an area' and take pride in their patch. Whether you are a resident, community group, school or business, you can take part in our scheme. The area you adopt can be as small as the pavement outside your home, a favourite footpath, play area, village or shop frontage - all we ask is that you help to keep that space litter free. You just decide on the area you wish to adopt and then sign up through our Chichester District Council 'adopt an area' page. We will then send you our 'Adopt an Area' pack to help you plan your activities and how we can help you. For example, we can loan you a litter picking kit and arrange for your litter bags to be removed. We're not asking you to do our job for us. Instead, we're asking for your support and to be our eyes and ears in your local community. We look after one of the largest districts in the country. By working together, we can make a difference and ensure our district remains beautiful for everyone who lives and works here.

We also have a Green Dog Walkers scheme, which is a national community-led programme to help reduce dog fouling and encourage responsible dog ownership. You can find out more on our Chichester District Council 'green dog walkers' page. This offers a proven, non-confrontational and friendly way to change attitudes about dog fouling and encourages responsible dog ownership. Most importantly, the scheme acts as a reminder to others that they need to pick up after their dog has fouled and keep them under control. By signing up you will receive one of our Green Dog Walks badges to display on your coat or dog lead, a car window sticker and a leaflet about our campaign.

We have some incredible individuals, groups and businesses across the district who are dedicated to keeping their patch clean and tidy, and we have celebrated these litter heroes through our campaign. Please do consider joining them and find out more about our work on our Chichester District Council 'Against Litter' campaign page.

Best Wishes

Cllr Jonathan Brown

Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environmental Strategy at Chichester District Council