City council teams who tackle flytipping and littering in Leicester’s streets have been shortlisted in the annual Keep Britain Tidy awards for their work during 2020’s coronavirus lockdowns.
In addition to its regular environmental work across the city, members of the City Wardens Service and Environmental Crime Team have filled staff shortages in other vital city council services involved in the city’s Covid-19 recovery work.
Now they have jointly been shortlisted for the Team of the Year Award by Keep Britain Tidy, the winner of which will be announced at a virtual ceremony on February 3, 2021.
Normally, staff from the teams are involved in education, enforcement and prevention in issues such as flytipping, littering and bins left on streets.
However, since March they have had to adapt to help out as part of the citywide effort to help people during lockdown.
Members of the teams have volunteered to help, advise and reassure vulnerable and shielding residents and arrange for food parcels, medication and other essentials to be delivered to those in need, as well as providing details to other relevant support agencies.
Staff were also used to help monitor parks and open spaces for social distancing and ensuring national or local Covid guidelines were being following on play equipment, outdoor gyms and other facilities.
Some staff were also used to help out at Covid testing centres across the city, managing queues at the city’s Household Waste Recycling Centres, and monitoring shopping areas to check compliance with business opening conditions.
At the start of the autumn 2020 school term, officers were involved in helping ensure parents were following to social distancing guidelines when taking and picking up their children from school.
In the run up to Christmas, City Wardens worked as part of a multi-agency task force supporting businesses and shoppers in the city centre, dealing with issues ranging from street trading and distribution of flyers to reporting any queuing or social distancing issues.
Leicester City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “It’s good to see that the hard work of this team has been recognised by Keep Britain Tidy in the shortlisting for this award.
“We’ve all had to adapt to changing demands during 2020, and for the City Wardens and Environmental Crime Team that has meant providing staff to help wherever needed, as well as carrying out the team’s ongoing enforcement and education work.
“It is encouraging to know that our staff have been able to play their part in helping people and businesses in Leicester to get through these exceptional times.”
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