Cleaning up an estate - does anyone know of it happening and how to get started. Is it possible to get investment into a housing estate?

[Vibing]

Hi
I bought an ex council house about 5 years ago or so. Houses near my sons school are out of my price range and this house came up. With a drive and a garden back and front. And 2 mins from school - perfect.

There were some local shops on a green nearby that have been knocked down and cleared with a mobile phone mast erected. Since then the green has become a flytipping spot.

The street got me down anyway as some people dont care if there rubbish is blowing around but equally theres some that do.

It gets me down and I cant afford to move. My sons have now flown the nest.

So if I cant move. I want to see if theres anything I can do?

Has anyone got any experience or know if its possible to get investment into a rundown area. Or at the least get it cleaned up?

I remember a tv program about a lady in London who managed to get investment into her area. This was a good while ago though and a different time. cant remember her name though

Also check whether your town is getting any cash from the long term plan for towns or is part of the instant justice pilots where people found guilty of antisocial behaviour are being put to work cleaning up litter and removing graffiti etc? It is all meant to be turning sketchy areas into nicer places and communities.

Make it something positive for the community. Turn the dead space into a space for growing community food. Could be you just start with planters of herbs and edible flowers.
https://www.edibleestates.co.uk/benefits-of-community-growing/
https://www.incredibleedible.org.uk/pdf/ie-toolshed_Growing_in_your_street_COMPLETE.pdf

If you can get your parish or town council behind you
https://www.find-government-grants.service.gov.uk/grants/the-community-ownership-fund-1#eligibility

Oh my word, I'm loving these ideas!

Im not quite sure where to start lol
Im gonna sit down and read through these again and come up with a plan of action.

My hesitation with the area and putting myself out there, is that there are some people who have less than good vibes and we've had a car fire or two. That has settled since something happened and a household was moved out or so I believe. I kind of dont want to attract attention. Feel a little vulnerable just being me. Also realise to do something, I need to put myself out there....

Please keep coming with your experience and ideas and views....

they really are helping and encouraging. Building my bravery up.

Good luck - sounds great

Good luck with it all. People have tried over the years where I live.

There was a local litter pick team for the park but they had to stop. There were huge groups of people following them, swearing at them and spitting at them - not all young people, some were families with children. It was dangerous too because of all the needles. I live in a dive with some absolutely dire people.

Everytime planting is done, it’s ripped up. The good people have given up.

The local authority is about to go broke too so it’s only going to get worse.

I am going in at a much lower level than this and just get out there and pick up the litter near my house every week or two. It's near a school which is why it's quite dispiriting as I pick it, then it reappears, plus if it's windy...

I'd love to clean up the area, the people round here are lovely, but I'm a lone parent and massively stretched with full-time work and children oriented stuff. My teens are not as keen to appear in the street with bags and gloves on picking up stuff, I don't mind!

I know it's not on the same scale, but even just keeping outside your own home and your neighbours either side, and grabbing obvious litter is better than nothing.

Is there a local scout or guiding group? They might like to be involved as well?

I now sweep down the pavements of my road and the road alongside, on a Wednesday night, as I know the council road sweeper vehicle comes on Thursday morning. It makes a lot of difference. I live next to a tatty old car park and am looking into getting planters for it and maybe a graffiti mural wall. I would like the local school art class to help with the second part but that is ambitious.

There's a community garden in a nearby housing estate, and they get all sorts of little grants (including help from the council).

They needed consent to use the land in that way (council. pretty straightforward) then got a perimeter fence (whether you need one at all depends on loyal layout and likelihood of attracting antisocial behaviour) and did fundraising for enough tools and other equipment to make it possible to start gardening. Some sort of plan for layout (so the space was well used and hard landscaping could be added later when it could be afforded). Organisations such as the Orchard Project helped with trees. Lots of plants were donated (some were from the council parks dept, who propagate for the borough and were happy to wave the excess off to a new home other than a compost heap - talking of which, you can make fine compost bins from old pallets). Always work in progress, always on the scrounge, but it's become such an asset

For at least part of the flytipping field

The Orchard Project - Bringing orchards into the heart of urban communities

It depends on how into this you want to get.

Firstly you can complain to your council re: lack of street cleaning and fly tipping.

Secondly if you want to get more invested you could start a community group who meet up and who do projects/ cleans/ planting/painting in the area. Perhaps there's a residents association that you can look into? Councils will give grants to such groups trying to do work that will benefit their area. I think that's your best bet.

Definitely have a look at your councils website to see if there's any support for local litter picking groups - mine provides equipment (gloves, picker, hi vis, bags etc) and collects the rubbish

OP, report litter, graffiti, vandalism, potholes etc via fixmystreet.com and get your neighbours to do the same. The reports go to the relevant council dept and the more that report the more likely it will get sorted.

Re flowers , has anyone been to Filby in Norfolk? Flower planting on steroids. Village looks amazing.

@CCLCECSC @Dontdeclutterthemagic @EcoCustard @EwwSprouts @Fluffywhitecloudsinthesky @Gingerkittykat @Hereyoume @Hereyoume @JanetareyouokareyouokJanet @Kwam31 @Lavender14 @MermaidProject @Multipleexclamationmarks @PermanentTemporary @Redshoeblueshoe @Rosecoffeecup @SgtJuneAckland @SquirmOfEels @Stewiegriffenstimemachine @Summerhillsquare @TeatimeBiscuits @TempleOfBloom @TheOccupier @TheThingIsYeah @Tinkerbyebye @bestbefore @elizabethdraper @friskybivalves @mondaytosunday @newnamethanks @owlsinthedaylight @senua @usernother

A massive thanks to all of you. Your ideas and suggestions are brilliant....

Ive sat through and did a bit of a summary so i can get a bit of an action plan lol

1. Register the complaints with the waste section of the local council re flytipping and street cleaning. (This has beend done)
2. I need to find out if there is a 'residents association' 'community group' and check if there is a street type social media already set up.
3. Reach out and seek support from local councillor (i have emailed questions, waiting on a response. I'll contact again next week)
4. Potentially set a group up if one not already in place - be it residents association/community group or friends of the green etc. And involve social media.
5. Potentially leaflets - to ask for involvement in any part of it
6. Litter picking
7. get in touch witht he council to try and get equipment
8. reach out to groups work out which avenue to go with (local schools - eco matters, scout/guide groups/local sports clubs or even unpaid community work groups be it probation etc.
9. Get out there at the very least myself once a fortnight to pick up and chat to everyone I see out

Goal being: Raise pride in the area or at least my street. Seek any funding and support for a multitude of ideas for the field. Return it to community use or at the very least for it to be consistantly grass cut.

I'll add specifics to my list when I look at this tomorrow - need to find out if there's already plans for the field.

I have taken note of all ideas and suggestions and all will be looked into. Exciting

Hi vibing, these are all great ideas. I would suggest if you set up a group it should be something positive like "make our estate great" as often you find negative moaners get involved and it becomes an exercise of criticising others, and often youths get blamed. A more positive way is to talk about lots of different improvements which could include clearing rubbish, removing graffiti, getting playpark equipment and that way it's not so negative.

You can buy very cheap and safe graffiti removal kits suitable for use by volunteers, if you quickly respond and wipe off graffiti straight away the people will give up eventually and go elsewhere.

Once you have a residents group there are lots of grants you can apply for which will then get more people interested when they realise they can get some really nice things for the estate. Good luck!

@SoIRejoined thank you!! And I like the idea of a positive name....

I've found out that it may come under a group / housing association. They have an environment team and a local area team. Ive left my intentions with them and theyre in theory going to come back to me to confirm if they are responsible for the field and if the houses not privately owned are under them. I have the local housing office name. They wouldn't give me contact details but I can easily work out what the email address is likely to be. I'll contact mid week next week.

next week or two I'll do a bit of research to find out what the infastructure is and who's who. And whose responsibility is whose.
I think Im starting looking at the wider estate as a whole and at the very least my street.

Good luck @Vibing
I’ll add some days (many) only me & my kids have been present at litter picks. However, the sense of doing something positive and not just moaning and members of the public saying in person when passing gives me an immense feeling of doing something good that makes some difference which is better than none. Every little helps!