There are dedicated Tidy Towns Project Officers around Wales who will:
Engage with Community Groups
Volunteers are the main focus of the project and Tidy Towns Project Officers will strive to establish new community groups and work with existing ones encouraging them to adopt areas of land such as stretches of river, beaches, parks and other "hot-spot" areas which suffer from littering, flytipping, graffiti and flyposting and take responsibility for its cleanliness.
Work with Local Authorities
Tidy Towns is a two part initiative with Keep Wales Tidy working in partnership with all local authorities. Tidy Towns Project Officers will advise and support the local authorities, to co-ordinate joint working and to inform local authorities where community action is taking place and to work with local authorities to help engage local communities.
Plan Action
Once areas have been selected, groups will work with project officers to plan proposed solutions and identify how they would like to tackle the problem. Officers will act as a link between communities, local authorities and other agencies such as the Environment Agency, Countryside Council for Wales and the Police to ensure thay have all supports they need.
Community Clean-ups
Tidy Towns Project Officers will initially be responsible for co-ordinating community clean-up events with community groups, local authorities and other key stakeholders, such as PIOC and police community liaison officers. The officers will organise (permissions, skip hire, publicity) and supervise (Health and Safety) the community events until groups have developed sufficient skills to organise themselves.
Cleansing of Litter Hotspots
Keep Wales Tidy will run a litter contract to cleanse those high profile sites that have been identified by residents and are deemed to be unsuitable for volunteers. Decisions to tackle hotspots through the litter contract will need to be made once all other options, including local authority clean up have been exhausted.
High profile ‘Tidy Team Events’ to Raise Awareness
The main aim of the events will be to engage with local people and encourage them to set up a group to ensure that the area is kept clean in the future. There will be a need to work with the local authorities and other key stakeholders to maximize the benefits of these events.
Environmental Improvements
In addition, to keeping the area free of litter, community groups will be given support to undertake environmental work that improves the environment and reduces the amount of litter and waste accumulating in these areas. Staff will assist volunteers to undertake improvement works as and where identified. These could take the form of planting, habitat creation, access improvements or other amenity value improvements. Officers will act as a link between communities, local authorities and other agencies such as the Environment Agency, Countryside Council for Wales and the Police to ensure communities have access to local authority support and the support of other agencies.
Transformation of Neglected Areas and Larger-Scale Enhancement Projects
The project will work with communities to transform areas into valuable community assets. Projects may include the creation of community gardens, cultural/art projects, access improvements and habitat/biodiversity enhancements. Officers will act as a link between communities and local authorities to ensure communities have access to local authority support.