Teenagers' clean break thanks to council partnership

Twelve teenagers will be given the chance to take part in a six month apprenticeship scheme thanks to an innovative Cambridge City Council partnership approved at today's Environment Scrutiny Committee.

The Lib Dem-run council is teaming up with cutting edge training company, Nordic Pioneer to give the young people aged between 16 and 18 training in cleaning up the environment.

The scheme will be partly funded with £10,000 raised from Fixed Penalty Notices issued for environmental crime such as dropping littler, graffiti and fly-tipping.

Apprentices will work cleaning up nature reserves, commons and cemeteries and remove fly tipping, graffiti and fly posting among other tasks.

Their apprentices will work with members of the council's Streets and Open Spaces service delivery team and the scheme will lead to an NVQ level 2 in Cleaning and Support Services and six months of work experience.

Cambridge City Executive Councillor for Waste and Environmental Services, Mike Pitt (pictured) said: "This is an exciting opportunity for young people to learn valuable skills and gain a nationally recognised qualification while caring for the environment around them. We are confident that this scheme will help the youngsters to find permanent employment in the future."

Rubbish row yesterday

If you went into the city centre yesterday you may have seen "Rubbish Row". This was an event organised by the Cleaner Cambridge Campaign in partnership with the City Council. I was there in my role as Executive Councillor for Environmental and Waste Services.

The idea was to remind people of the problems caused by dropping litter and alert them to the amount of rubbish that the City Council cleans up. The row was two days worth of litter picked from all over the city by the City Council. I have been promised some photos and will put them up when I get them.

It was also useful as it gave people a chance to talk to City officers and campaigners about problem areas near them. The Council can then act on the problems.

We provide a large number of bins in the city centre and in regional centres (like Campkin Piazza) but some people still drop litter. Part of our message yesterday was to remind people that we have an enforcement team who (along with the police) can issue £75 fixed penalty notices. We'd far rather we didn't have to however.

We also used the opportunity to promote the new blue bin system. The bins should be delivered in late October, and the collections start on 16 November. Your first blue bin collection will be the day of your next green bin collection after that date. Contact us or the City Council if you have any concerns.