Co-ordinating UK cleaning
February 27th 2008 The British Cleaning Council provides a forum for its 19 members, covering every strand of UK cleaning, to meet and work together to raise the profile and help cleaning gain the credibility it deserves.
The Clean Britain Awards is our biennial competition which focuses on environmental cleansing, showcasing the UK’s cleanest cities, towns and districts efforts to keep the streets spick and span.
The Awards’ mantra is:‘Helping to Put Civic Pride Back In to Britain’. Richard Chisnell, Clean Britain Awards Director, explains: “We feel passionate about making strides for our country to become a cleaner Britain. We aim to promote high standards of cleanliness in urban and rural environments and to encourage to those who toil hard to achieve a cleaner and tidier environment.”
Traditionally the competition coincides with the Cleaning Show.Awards inspectors look at all entrants for evidence of litter, cigarette litter, chewing gum deposits, dog fouling, fly-tipping and other areas affecting local environmental quality.
“The Clean Britain Awards have the backing of other key organisations such as ENCAMS (behind the Keep Britain Tidy campaign); the Association of Town Centre Management and the Campaign to Protect Rural England to name a few,” says Chisnell. “Protecting the environment has become a hot topic and taking more care of where we live and work must play a part in that.”
Steve Wright Chairman of the BCC says:“Previous award winners have boosted their media profile from being named the cleanest location in the country – being crowned the Cleanest Place in Britain makes for happier residents and tourists.”
Birmingham City Council was overall winner of the last awards, winning the Cleanest City category. Judges were most impressed with its efforts to renew parts of the city centre and to treat it as a Visitor Priority Area with a focus on shopping areas, transport hubs and leisure facilities. The council has city wardens monitoring the centre’s streets for any anti-social activity.
Ipswich was crowned Cleanest Town and Mendip (pictured below) Cleanest District. Both these areas were recognised for their partnership working schemes to tackle problems such as graffiti and fly-tipping.
“My colleagues and I from Birmingham were extremely pleased to be sitting nervously amongst the distinguished finalists in the Clean Britain Awards Ceremony at the NEC last March,” says Jeremy Shields, Birmingham City Council.
“Winning the ‘City’category was fantastic for Birmingham, since, as regular participants and previous winners, we knew just how tough the competition is. “The trophy holds pride of place in the Birmingham Council House, and our thanks go to BCC for staging this excellent event, and the other competitors for pushing us so hard.”
So who will feature in the next competition? That remains to be seen. The beauty of the expanding Clean Britain Awards means that more people throughout the UK have the chance to get behind their city, town or district in the bid to become crowned one of the cleanest places in Britain.
For further details on the BCC and the awards, see: www.britishcleaningcouncil.org
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