City Wardens Coffee Networking

James Black

The second Community News Meeting at Kona Blue Coffees in Leicester’s Highcross boasted 22 people with participants from Citizens Eye, The Wave and Community Action Photographers. As well as the community news crowd we were also joined by Craig Bodsworth and Nik Krneta who work for Leicester City Council as City Wardens covering the Castle Ward.  Nik and Craig told me about their work which involves engaging with the community, educating the public on environment issues and policing the local area.

City Wardens take an active role in the community by going into schools to educate young people about environmental issues such as recycling and the proper disposal of litter. ‘Duty of Care’ visits are regularly carried out to local businesses to investigate how they are disposing of their waste. An £80 fine can be issued to businesses who do not deal with waste in an appropriate manner.

Nik and Craig told me about the recent ‘Bins on Streets’ scheme which has been started to encourage members of the public to place their bins to the rear of their property and off the street. A leaflet posting campaign has also launched to inform residents of the problem.  If residents fail to respond to repeated warnings each person who lives in the offending property can be fined £110. This issue has become a particularly serious problem of late due to arson attacks within the city where individuals have set fire to bins posing a potentially fatal risk to the public.  As Craig told me ‘Bins that are outside of terraced-housing are often positioned next to a gas meter obviously if the meter is ignited it can cause an explosion.’

Routine duties include patch walks around the Warden’s designated area one of their tasks is to report any defects in the highway, lighting and signposts. They also provide a visible presence of law and order on the streets reassuring the public, answering any questions they may have and supplying information on council services. City Wardens also have the power to issue Fixed Penalty Notices to combat incidents of littering, dog fouling, graffiti and fly tipping.

In the upcoming weeks the Leicester City Council will be looking for volunteers to begin a new Young Persons Warden Scheme within the city. Please keep posted to The Wave magazine in the Leicester Mercury and Citizens’ Eye for more information.