New wardens for Cleaner Safer Greener campaign

Four neighbourhood wardens are to be employed by Newark and Sherwood District Council as part of its Cleaner Safer Greener strategy.

The scheme, which was launched this summer, targets littering, graffiti, dog fouling and other environmental issues.

Mr Alan Batty, business manager for environmental health, told a meeting of the policy and finance committee on Thursday one of the elements of the strategy was the appropriate enforcement of penalties for environmental crime and the issue of fixed penalty notices.

"The role of community based enforcement officers in addressing anti social behaviour and environmental crime is well established," he said.

"They can prove highly effective in increasing public awareness of these issues and provide effective enforcement of placed based environmental crime."

Mr Batty said the initial vision had been for two wardens but having visited other local authorities and discussed the issues with them it was felt the appointment of four officers would create a visible impact in the community.

The role of the wardens will be to tackle littering and deal with low level anti social behaviour and dog fouling.

They will also investigate small fly tipping and removal of the waste and take forward the enforcement of public spaces protection orders.

"They will spend 90% of their time in the community working directly with the public and become a valuable source of information for the council gathering local intelligence," he said. "They will also work closely with the police on relevant issues."

Vehicles will be provided for the wardens who will also have uniforms making them easily recognisable. The total cost for a full year will be £126,816.

Mr Roger Jackson said that as the chairman of the leisure and environment committee he was looking forward to working with Alan and his team on the initiative.

"We need good officers to do this job," he said. "I am pleased they are going to be working with the communities and the parish councils who are our eyes and ears."

Labour group leader Mr Paul Peacock said he supported the proposal and said the whole scheme was a very positive one for the whole district.

The vice-chairman Mr Keith Girling said it was an exciting prospect for the district.

"This is tackling the problem head on," he said.