Barking and Dagenham Council leaders agreed yesterday to fund twelve projects costing a total of £2,883,640, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter
Efforts to fight fly-tipping and antisocial behaviour are among projects set to benefit from nearly £3million in grant funding from Barking and Dagenham Council.
Council leaders agreed yesterday (Tuesday 20th) to fund twelve projects costing a total of £2,883,640.
The projects include mobile CCTV cameras, new street bins and lorries to clear fly-tips, as well as grants for community groups.
Labour council leader Dominic Twomey said the projects would benefit “thousands of our residents”.
They include £670,000 to be spent on street cleaning in the borough. Plans say this could be used to buy a new “grab lorry” to collect fly tips, or on new litter bins.
The plans say fly-tipping is “one of the greatest environmental blights facing our borough” and damages “civic pride”. They say a grab lorry would allow the council to “address larger fly tips sooner and respond more quickly”.
However, proposals also say the borough’s public litter bins are “old, damaged, unsightly and no longer fit for purpose”. They say reviewing their locations and replacing some could encourage “better” behaviour and lead to “reduced litter”.
Approved projects also include £207,796 for at least 25 CCTV cameras that can be “installed temporarily in locations experiencing spikes in antisocial behaviour or environmental crime”.
Senior Labour councillor Cameron Geddes said these could help to catch and punish fly-tippers.
He said: “Residents would far rather we actually prosecuted people via the cameras rather than just got a better reputation for collecting fly tipping more quickly.
“We want to stop it rather than simply collect it more quickly.”
The projects were all approved by the council’s cabinet yesterday. Some £1.5m of the funding will come from a government ‘Pride in Place’ grant from the government.
The rest will come from strategic community infrastructure levy funds, which is a charge on developers of major construction projects.
Other projects to benefit include £100,000 towards a new plan to manage and renew the borough’s parks. A further £75,000 will go towards reparing park bridges.
Community organisations will also benefit from the funding.
Leys pavilion in Dagenham will get £75,000 towards its refurbishment for use by Box Up Crime, which offers boxing sessions to young people.
St Chads Pavillion will get £175,000 towards “immediate” or “urgent” repairs for use by Aztecs Cricket Club.
And Al Madina Mosque in Victoria Road will get £288,000 to develop its community facilities including meeting rooms, events halls, a soft play and sports facilities.
Plans say this will “boost the local economy by offering accessible workspace, a café, social activities, and training opportunities”.
