A new council service will be taking to the streets of North East Lincolnshire from Thursday, March 18, with the aim of building community pride in the borough’s neighbourhoods.

The service, known as Community pride, is a combination of the council’s warden and environmental enforcement services, but with a new and improved focus of better meeting the needs and expectations of the community.

It has been introduced following consultation with residents, which showed that crime, environmental crime, and anti-social behaviour are of greatest concern to the local population.

Councillor Peter Burgess, the Liberal Democrat portfolio holder for the environment and the green agenda, said:

“This new and improved service aims to build community pride in North East Lincolnshire and we will be working with all our residents to ensure that we tackle the problems they are facing in their neighbourhoods.

“Previously the neighbourhood safety scheme wardens and the environmental enforcement teams have worked separately. However, this new service is about bringing all their work together so they are working to one agenda. This will ensure we have a greater impact and the aim is to make a real difference to people’s lives in North East Lincolnshire.”

Key aspects of the new service include:

• New more flexible working, so officers are on the streets when it really matters
• Improved street presence
• Increased efficiency by focusing on the customer and cutting unnecessary bureaucracy
• Enhanced graffiti removal, with closer working with Community Payback
• Improved visibility and identity with new uniforms and vehicle branding
• Better communications with the public so that they know what the service is doing and why
• Improved working with Humberside Police, the Environment Agency and other key agencies

Liberal Democrat leader of the council, Councillor Andrew De Frietas, said:

“We have listened to the concerns of the public and they have told us that improvements are still needed in a number of areas, including high visibility patrols, dealing with fly tipping, littering and dog fouling.

“Community Pride will tackle all of these areas in a much more efficient way. It is important that we work very closely with our partners, such as the Police and the Environment Agency, to ensure that we are all working together to improve our area.

“We want to encourage residents to tell us where they are experiencing problems and we will work with them to ensure that their neighbourhoods are always a pleasant place to live and work.”

The telephone number for members of the public to call regarding any enviro-crime incidents is (01472) 324770.