Photos needed to clean up city
4:13pm Wednesday 10th October 2007
Residents in Oxford are being urged to help create an online 'hall of shame' in a bid to clean up the city.
Oxford City Council wants people to send in digital pictures of graffiti and abandoned vehicles as part of a photo reporting trial.
The pictures will be published on the council's website, along with a progress report and images of the site once the problem has been sorted.
The idea was inspired by a similar project in Lewisham, in London.
Council officers hope the increased information gained through photo reporting will allow them to tackle graffiti more effectively.
And if the trial is a success, the photo scheme will be rolled out to include other issues.
The city council's online communications officer, Shey Cobley, said: "The idea for our photo-reporting website came from the Love Lewisham site.
"This is hosted by Lewisham Council and it allows residents to report issues of concern through a dedicated website.
"Since they introduced it they have seen three times as much graffiti removed, in half the time. This is because they were able to target their resources more effectively, as the photos clearly showed how big the problem was and what was needed to deal with it."
Since introducing the website Lewisham's performance rating for dealing with graffiti has also improved dramatically, taking it from among worst councils to among the best in the country.
Ms Cobley said: "We hope we will see a similar result in Oxford.
"This is a one-month trial and we're asking residents to email photos of abandoned cars and graffiti."
Jean Fooks, executive member for a cleaner city, said: "This initiative should help residents to report any problems they see and enable them to check on the action taken by the council. I encourage residents to take out their digital cameras and send us pictures."
Residents can email photos, with the location and postcode, to photoreporting@oxford.gov.uk For more information, see www.oxford.gov.uk/photoreporting