The North West Liveability Foundation Pilot
The year long Liveability Foundation Pilot was delivered from 1st November 2006 to the 30th November 2007 and involved seven partners who all joined forces to develop a model of improvement and learning . They consisted of;
- Riverside Housing Group (with Carlisle Housing Association)
- Preston City Council
- South Ribble Borough Council
- Wigan Council
- Stockport MBC
- Oldham MBC
- Vale Royal Borough Council
Each of the seven pilot organisations chose to focus on one neighbourhood or area within the borough or, in the case of Carlisle Housing Association, a Housing Estate where they are a major landlord. As part of the Foundation pilot the partners received a market research project and ran regional campaigns on different topics aimed at the public. As well developing and testing an enforcement strategy that involved all of the partners working together, sharing ideas and resources.
Partners also received a ‘before and after’ full LEQ Survey, receiving a health check on Keep Britain Tidy indicators to develop local priorities and solutions which included £3,000 worth of technical support from a register of organisations.
Other formal elements of the programme included:
- Monthly steering group meetings
- Quarterly sounding group meetings
- Web pages trialled on Keep Britain Tidy website
- Quarterly e-bulletins circulated
All of this work contributed to a final report which identified the impact of the North West Liveability Foundation Pilot Programme and the learning gained for further regional improvements in cleaner safer greener issues in the future. This was distributed in March 2008
Pilot Support
The pilot project was made possible with funding from the NWDA and the Lancashire Economic Partnership as well as guidance and expertise from Keep Britain Tidy and hard work from the partner local authorities and housing groups.
As well as those involved in the pilot and its funding the following organisations also supported the project: Government Office for North West, North West Regional Assembly, RENEW, Environment Agency, Groundwork and Crime Concern.
Pilot Successes
The pilot programme, which was managed by Keep Britain Tidy was hugely successful:
- Litter improved by 12% (in some areas as much as 48%)
- Landscaping maintenance improved by 6% (up to 36% in some areas)
- Post pilot market research in one area showed 64% of people saying that the general appearance has got better
- Improvements on the ground were made at no additional cost to the pilots
- One of the main aims of the project was to find out training needs and test tailor training courses of each partner local authority and housing association.
Overall, 141 respondents completed the training needs analysis which fed into the development of the training courses. Over the year long pilot, 6 training courses were run for a total of 202 delegates.
- Other individual pilot benefits member’s received:
- Many pilots used their ‘test’ areas as a test bed for service reviews
- Empowering staff to multi task and solve problems
- Adopted new systems thinking
- Pilots are rolling out successes into other areas
- Opened up new partnerships to people
- Tangible benefits to the test areas and to the organisations involved
- Surveys and the Market Research helped to guide actions
- Training programme & Expert Technical Support helped build the capacity of those leading on the actual delivery of improvements
- Being part of the NWLF Pilot year gave rational and confidence to develop new systems management to environmental management
- NWLF wider communication was valuable in raising individual pilot profile
- Positive perception shift for residents on clean, safe and green of test areas
- Using existing resources in a different, more targeted way, learning and using all the information at their disposal
- Corporate and Political support was strengthened as a result of the NWLF Pilot programme.
- Financial support given to test areas for future work through growth bids