Havering Council is marking one year of its flagship campaign, Where We Live by highlighting the rise in community pride and cleaner, safer streets.
In the last 12 months, the campaign has seen the number of community volunteer groups grow and grotspot areas transformed.
More residents are reporting fly-tipping and graffiti, which in turn, has helped resulted in a rise in the number of enforcement actions carried out by the Council.
Where We Live was launched in October 2024, to empower communities to take pride in their neighbourhoods and work alongside the Council to help keep Havering cleaner and greener.
So far, the campaign has seen:
- the number of Womble volunteer groups grow from just two to nine in the borough, along with other volunteer groups like Havering Clean Streets, carrying out litter picks and clean ups in their own time
- over 100 litter pick events held and over 500 bags of rubbish collected from the streets
- Grotspot areas like Elmer Gardens, Rainham turned into cleaner and welcoming community spaces for all
- deep cleaning to help rid the scourge of dropped chewing gum from our pavements
- 10 ballot bins installed to encourage people to put their discarded cigarette butts instead of dropping them on the floor
- volunteers, community groups and the Council joining together to clean up local rivers and plant trees
The campaign has also seen action towards keeping the borough safer through its community safety and enforcement work.
Havering remains one of the safest London boroughs, but the Council, as part of the Havering Community Safety Partnership, acknowledges that despite this, the fear of crime by residents is high.
Work with communities will continue to take place to help towards reducing that fear, but action already taken includes:
- installation of an upgraded £3m CCTV system to help fight crime and keep the streets safer
- crime summits held in February and November 2025, bringing together key partners and local communities to discuss tackling crime
- installation of a knife surrender bin in Harold Hill and supporting knife amnesty
- working with partners, including the police, to support safer streets for all, including women’s safety and tackling hate crime.
- hosting the annual Junior Citizen Scheme that helps school children learn life skills to help them stay safe as they transition to secondary school.
Councillor Ray Morgon, Leader of Havering Council, said:
“The aim of our Where We Live campaign from the start, was to enable and encourage everyone to have pride in our local neighbourhoods across the borough.
“We’re delighted to see the response we have had from our residents and communities over the past year.
"Many of whom are part of volunteer groups who help us keep the borough cleaner and tidier.
“Alongside our service teams who carry out their daily duties and respond to reports from residents, we are seeing a real boost in the sense of pride.
“I would like to thank everyone who has joined us as part of the campaign so far and helped us spread the word about it.
"Please continue to do so. This will help to make where we live, work and go to school nicer, safer and even more enjoyable places to be.
“There is still a lot to do and we won’t be stopping here. We can all do something to keep where we live nicer.
"Putting your litter in a bin instead of dropping it on the floor. Is there an area where you live that you can help look after?
"If you see fly-tipping, can you report this to us, so we can take quicker action against those who carry out this crime.
“As we all know, these small actions can lead to big changes and if we do this together, we can all love Where We Live.”