Portswood to get Street CRED

The Street CRED team is coming to Portswood to help make the streets cleaner and safer and to improve the problem of street drinking and begging.

Street CRED (Crime Reduction and Environment Day) is a new council initiative in Southampton to help keep streets clean, green and safe. They aim to tackle issues from rubbish to anti-social behaviour. They hope to get local residents included together with the council and local emergency services.

The initiative was launched last autumn to help promote pride in Southampton’s neighbourhoods, and is coming to Portswood on Wednesday 26^th of June.

The event has already taken place in Freemantle and is scheduled to take place in Townhill Park, Harefield and Millbrook.

The main concern in Freemantle was dog fouling and this was tackled as part of the initiative. During the day a Community Payback team cleaned up dog mess and picked up rubbish, while the Street CRED team were joined by the Freemantle Dog Walkers in the park. Parents and teachers from a nearby primary school, Newlands, and a local friends group participated in the mass clean up.

The Broadway, Portswood, where the event will take place.

When the initiative comes to The Broadway, Portswood the focus will be on drinking in the street and begging. The team hope to make the area more pleasant for locals and visitors.

Like in Freemantle, Community Payback and the Street CRED team will work together to help clean up Portswood. A cleansing team will be jet washing shop doorways, while City Patrol will be working with the Police carrying out foot patrols of the area. Along with this, the police, Hampshire Fire and Rescue and the Blue Lamp Trust will be situated at the former Blockbuster site to talk to residents from 10am to 3pm.

City council community chief, Jacqui Rayment, said in the Daily Echo:

Street CRED is all about promoting pride in our neighbourhoods. Evidence shows that neighbourhoods that are well kept, clean and green are also safer and less likely to attract  crime– which makes a big difference to how residents feel about where they live and improves their quality of life. That’s why Street CRED is such a positive scheme and I encourage residents to come along and share their ideas for improving our neighbourhoods.