Keeping the Vale a clean place to live

• Deal effectively with litter and detritus*
• Tackle "envirocrime", such as fly-tipping, dog fouling and graffiti

The Vale is set in an area of outstanding countryside and tourism makes a significant contribution towards the local economy. With this in mind, the cleanliness of the district plays an important part in maintaining the visual and economic well being of the area.

Our external contractor is responsible for collecting litter and detritus along roads and in public areas, the removal of fly-tipping and emptying litter bins. Over the last couple of years levels of cleanliness, as measured by national indicators, has improved significantly. It remains a priority for further improvements to be made. The Oxfordshire Local Area Agreement includes a national indicator which measures street and environmental cleanliness and there is a challenging target for improvement over the period 2008-12.

We have taken a strong stance against envirocrimes. These include offences such as fly-tipping, dropping litter and dog fouling. Vale Voice, our citizens' panel, has told us that there is widespread concern about environmental crimes generally. The two of greatest concern are litter and dog fouling. Our two environment wardens deliver a service, striking an effective balance between education and awareness raising and enforcement. This is through the issue of fixed penalty notice fines or prosecution through the courts. One recent initiative has been the successful pilot in Grove of a "dog fouling action area". This gained widespread positive publicity in the local media and resulted in the issue of a fixed penalty notice. This scheme will now be rolled out to other towns and villages.

Our environment wardens work to raise awareness of how local people can improve environmental quality through community schemes such as local voluntary litter-picks in villages and towns. Our contractors help with this work, providing a wide range of equipment and then removing the waste at the end of the day.

* Detritus includes dust, mud, soil, grit; rotted leaf, grass cuttings and other bits of vegetation; and fragments of glass and plastics.