A hard-hitting campaign unleashed to fight grime crime in Brent neighbourhoods has cut the number of illegal rubbish dumps by up to three quarters (75%) in hotspot areas.
The council’s WANTED campaign, which launched in 2020, saw the council release CCTV images of people caught on camera dumping rubbish illegally. Its success has now been recognised by Keep Britain Tidy with a prestigious 'Waste Performance of the Year' award 2022.
Leaflets and posters appealed to the public for information to help identify the perpetrators so that enforcement officers could serve them with a Fixed Penalty Notice or take more stringent action.
It was launched in response to residents’ anger that devious dumpers are not playing by the rules and are selfishly spoiling some of the borough’s streets for everyone else.
In 2019, the council recorded 50 rubbish dumps on Townsend Lane. However, after installing cameras to catch culprits and putting up ‘wanted’ posters with their faces on, the same area only attracted 15 reports in 2021 – 70% fewer in just two years.
Similarly, on Lancelot Road, eight ‘wanted’ posters were installed and thanks to intelligence from local residents, seven of these unscrupulous bandits have been caught and penalised. The council has also noted a 75% drop in reported rubbish dumps in the area since the campaign started.
In total across the borough, 68 Fixed Penalty Notices have been issued.
