New Era, New Challenges, New Ways of Working
The final North West Liveability Foundation Conference took place in November 2011 and marked the end of the North West Liveability Foundation Programme. All the presentations from the conference can be viewed here.
The final Local Environmental Quality surveys and Perception surveys were also conducted in each of the target areas during 2011 and despite the difficult climate all the partners managed to achieve improvements.
There have been many changes over the past three years - especially to funding which has had a severe impact on many local authorities and housing providers across the North West. However, despite these challenges there were still some positive things to come from the Programme - some of the highlights include:
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Target areas either improved or did not get worse in key problem areas such as litter and graffiti when resources had been tightened or reduced
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Perceptions improved in the majority of areas
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Dog fouling was perceived to be less of a problem in the majority of areas
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The proportion of residents feeling safe to some extent during the day increased in all areas
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In one area the proportion of people who felt that people in their area treated them with respect and consideration increased from 9% to 68%
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In another area the proportion of residents satisfied with street cleansing rose from 66% to 95%
There are many challenges to face over the next few years as we go through unprecedented changes to local government. Poor Local Environmental Quality in the North West is still a particular issue and needs to be tackled and these issues along with the quality of neighbourhoods are still high on the public agenda even though authorities are now working with less resources and more pressure.
However, Keep Britain Tidy is looking to the future with exciting programmes such as Love Where You Live. We are keen to continue to work closely with partners in the North West and will continue to support their work locally.
If you have any suggestions going forward on areas such as next practice we would love to hear from you - please use the contact form.