Neat Streets in Tooting | Impact report I Hubbub

TOOTING N E AT S T R E E T S

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THE AMBITION

Hubbub was asked by Wandsworth Council to make Tooting more attractive for residents, businesses and visitors. We aimed to: • Trial innovative ideas in Tooting to combat littering and fly-tipping across the borough • Build community pride and engage

stakeholders on the topic of waste • Create a vibrant, visible campaign that shows that Wandsworth Council is proactively tackling this stubborn problem

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THE RESEARCH

To gain insights into littering and fly-tipping behaviour in Tooting, Hubbub conducted 16 stakeholder interviews, 11 householder interviews and surveyed 305 Tooting residents. The research showed that: •

98% of survey respondents think fly-tipping is a problem in Tooting

•

93% of the survey respondents thought it is unlikely that fly-tippers will get caught

•

Tooting’ has a transient population with lots of short-term lets

•

A lack of wheelie bins, and space to store waste for shop owners and residents above shops means more black bags on the streets

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THE APPROACH

We identified several opportunities for the campaign: •

Informing the transient population on the correct days, times and waste to dispose of waste

•

Promoting the active enforcement by the Council, making residents aware that people get caught and fined for fly-tipping

•

Engaging the successful Town Centre Partnership and active community

groups •

Encouraging shops to scrub up: by window cleaning, greening and painting which could go a long way to improving the area

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C A M PA I G N L O O K A N D F E E L #NE AT S T R E E T S C O L O U R S , I M A G E R Y, I L L U S T R AT I O N S

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LITTER AND F LY- T I P P I N G I N T E RV E N T I O N S

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BRIGHT BINS

To reduce littering throughout Tooting we brightened up 45 bins. By making them colorful we increased their visibility, nudging people to bin their waste, rather than dropping it on the floor.

Research has proven in a multitude of cases that people who feel watched behave in more socially responsible ways. Because

adding eyes in street scenes has the same ‘watching eyes’ effect, we included a pair of eyes on each vinyl.

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GUM CHALKING

To involve young children in Tooting on the topic of litter, we invited all schools in Tooting to organise a gum chalking activity.

Three schools organised gum chalking events, taking out their students to chalk colourful circles around gum on the floor. It made the children aware of the issue, and drew the attention of passersby.

One school in Wandsworth town was inspired by the campaign and ran a ‘watching eyes competition’ in which 250 children created a design for watching eyes.

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ENFORCEMENT MESSAGING

To increase the knowledge about enforcement in Tooting we looked for creative ways to promote the message that ‘people are regularly fined in Tooting for littering and fly-tipping’.

This message was promoted via 55 lamp post wraps, a chalkboard in two different locations and a newsletter, sent out to all of

Tooting’s residents and businesses.

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ENFORCEMENT MESSAGING

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ENFORCEMENT MESSAGING

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INFORMING RESIDENTS

Tooting has a transient population. With new residents moving in regularly it is important to communicate how to dispose of waste correctly.

We informed residents and businesses about collection days and times, ways of disposing of bulky waste and actions to take when you spot fly-tipping via a door-to-door delivered newsletter to all of Tootings’ residents and businesses, a social media campaign, lamp post wraps and a press release.

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INFORMING RESIDENTS F LYER

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INFORMING RESIDENTS LAMP PO ST W RAPS

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INFORMING RESIDENTS LAMP PO ST W RAPS

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INFORMING RESIDENTS LAMP PO ST W RAPS

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WAT C H I N G E Y E S

When people feel watched, they behave in more socially responsible ways. Initially tested by Rotterdam’s police force, it is proven that applying eyes on walls and buildings makes people feel watched and reduces criminal behaviour.

We brought this tested approach to Tooting.

We asked businesses close to fly-tipping

hotspots for permission to paint eyes on one of their premises to deter people from flytipping. Four businesses gave permission and now have ‘watching eyes’ on one of their walls.

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BUILDING C O M M U N I T Y- P R I D E AND ENGAGING S TA K E H O L D E R S

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BUILDING COMMUNITY PRIDE CO MMUNI T Y G ALLERY

To increase the sense of pride in the area, we invited businesses to take part in a community gallery. This entailed having their picture taken while holding a sign with the text ‘Take Care of Tooting’. They were then provided with a campaign poster, including the photograph of them to put up in their shop window.

Nineteen businesses had their picture taken and seventy-six businesses in total put up a campaign poster in their shop. Additionally the posters were visible on digital screens throughout Tooting’s streets.

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BUILDING COMMUNITY PRIDE CO MMUNI T Y G ALLERY

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BUILDING COMMUNITY PRIDE CO MMUNI T Y CLEAN - UP DAY

To spruce up Tooting’s streets and engage local organisations, we invited businesses to participate in a community clean-up day and clean up their shop front: • Ninety businesses told us they planned to take part.

• Eight businesses promoted the clean-up

on social media.

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BUILDING COMMUNITY PRIDE CO MMUNI T Y CLEAN - UP DAY

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C H U R C H L A N E C A R PA R K

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C H U R C H L A N E C A R PA R K

To reduce fly-tipping on Church Lane we planned to beautify Church Lane car park.

The Council reapplied the parking lines, and Hubbub organized the application of a colourful mural to the electricity substation in the middle of the car park. Two designs were created by the artist, and the final design was voted for by the local community, collecting 486 votes. Due to mixed ownership and lack of maintenance budget it was not possible to straighten out the bollards, plant plants or fix the fencing around the park.

To fully deter people from littering and fly-tipping on Church Lane a more involved

approach is needed. The car park suffers from a lack of perceived ownership or interest.

Finding a local faith or community group to take responsibility for the space could be a good next step.

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COVERAGE

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MEDIA & SOCIAL MEDIA

The campaign received coverage in three media-channels, Tooting Daily Prss, Wandsworth Radio, and SW Londoner.

The 33 posts by Wandsworth Council on social media had a reach of 12,313. 170 people commented on the posts, 238 liked the posts, and 78 clicked through to the Council website. On Instagram 14 pictures

attracted 625 likes, the mural especially proved popular.

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SOCIAL MEDIA

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SOCIAL MEDIA

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SOCIAL MEDIA

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I M PA C T

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I M PA C T O N F LY- T I P P I N G

The Council’s enforcement officer Aaron Stocker measured the campaign’s impact on street cleanliness by rating ten fly-tipping hotspots twice a week for eleven weeks (including two weeks before the campaign launch).

The data shows a slight decrease in fly-tipping with the overall cleanliness of

hotspots improving by just 5%. The occasions on which the hotspots were ‘clean’ of ‘very clean’ increased by 17%,

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I M PA C T O N F LY- T I P S R E P O R T E D

Next to reducing fly-tipping, one of the campaign ambitions was increasing the number of reports of fly-tipping coming in via wandsworth.gov.uk.

The number of fly-tips reported after the campaign increased by 46% compared to the same two months (February and March) the previous year, and rose by 253% compared to the two previous months (December and January).

This data clearly shows the campaign’s success in creating awareness on the topic of fly-tipping, and encouraging people to report fly-tips.

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BUSINESS RESPONSES

Speaking to ten businesses in Tooting about the campaign, seven out of ten businesses had heard about the Neat Streets campaign. All businesses said they would like to see more of the campaign. They mostly agreed that the campaign raised awareness of littering in Tooting, and opinions were divided whether the campaign had or had not reduced littering and fly-tipping. ‘‘Yes, definitely, it does make an impact on the tidiness of the streets’’. ‘‘It has helped however more still needs to be done, streets are still covered with

litter’’. ‘‘I think that fly-tipping has definitely improved. I don’t know if this is because of the campaign or just in general’’.

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NEXT STEPS

With simple and positive messaging Neat Streets Tooting succeeded in engaging businesses and residents on the topic of litter and fly-tipping. Fly-tipping dropped slightly and the number of fly-tips reported increased.

To significantly decrease fly-tipping we recommend focusing a fly-tipping campaign

on one target audience per campaign in a small geographical area. For example, residents living above shops on the high street, or business owners on the high street.

THANK YOU S I LV I A K E R S T E S I LV I A @ H U B B U B . O R G . U K @HUBBUBUK