A Freshview for Lambeth
Freshview, a community clean up campaign led by Lambeth Street Care, has been working to improve the environment and address local issues across the borough by connecting with the people who know the area best – you.
Freshview originally started out as a 12 month pilot in 2006 to clean up some of the borough's more deprived areas and has developed into an established programme that is active throughout Lambeth. Activities include removing graffiti, issuing fines for littering, home fire safety checks, confiscation of illegal goods and firearms and promoting recycling to business and residents.
For one day every month the council teams up with several different agencies including the Metropolitan Police, London Fire Brigade, Safer Lambeth, Transport for London, and Veolia to visit two of the borough's wards with the aim of making them cleaner, safer and greener. Freshview also works with Community Payback and young offenders. Collectively both groups have given back over 635 hours of community service so far in 2009.
Community Freshview
The success of Freshview led to the formation of Community Freshview last year, an initiative that gives residents the opportunity to lead on their own environmental project with the support of Lambeth Street Care.
The project should help to improve the quality of their local area and residents will need to belong to a community group or have volunteers that want to help out. Community Freshview can provide advice, equipment and extra pairs of hands to help get the work done.
Fourteen neighbourhoods and areas in Lambeth have benefited from the Community Freshview so far, including Unigate Wood in Streatham, which has been cleared of rubbish and debris, Bolney Meadows Estate which has recently won an RHS Britain in Bloom award for their garden, and Josephine Avenue, which now has a community garden for residents to grow their own vegetables.
This year the Community Freshview scheme was singled out from 350 projects across London to win third prize in the London-wide Capital Clean-up Campaign awards.