British Cleaning Council

We have launched these new Awards in order to make the competition more inclusive of all UK councils. We recognised that not only our cities, but many of our towns and districts work hard to keep communities and areas clean and tidy.

In our new competition not only is there the prestige of being named Britain`s Cleanest City, Town or District, there will also be the added benefit of the additional media attention that will be brought to finalists and winners.

By combining the BCC tourist perception judging criteria with government approved standards - namely the Best Value Performance Indicator (BVPI) 199, we are giving each Local Authority a fair and comparative crack of the whip on winning by looking at how they cater for residents and for visitors.

The competition is now more representative of the country as a whole and would provide entrants with the opportunity to compare notes with their neighbouring towns and cities on running exemplar operations.

Past winners of the BCC Awards have experienced a number of positive benefits. These include:

Securing existing budgets
Increased sponsorship opportunities
Increased profile for the Local Authority within the industry
Inspiration for other towns / cities and districts
Added sense of pride in the Local Authority
Recognition from others as leaders in the field
Allows employees to focus on what needs to be achieved for improving cleanliness
Develops a sense of achievement, and greater corporate support

Background

The deadline for entries to the Clean Britain Awards 2007 was Friday 30th June 2006.

There was a paper round initially where the judging panel can examine applications from all entered cities, towns and districts. Following this, the second round of judging entailed presentations to the panel from the top five from each category.

Announced site visits took place in September, giving finalists an opportunity to present their place in a clean and tidy light. Unannounced visits took place in all finalist locations in the lead up to the finale, which took place at the Cleaning Show in Birmingham`s NEC on Tuesday 13th March 2007.

Formerly Britain`s Cleanest City competition, this is the first year of the Clean Britain Awards. Now all UK Local Authorities will be able to enter their city, town or district in to the competition.

Definitions of areas

As mentioned above, the Awards are based on three categories, these are City, Town / Borough and District. Definitions of these three categories are mentioned below:

City Status

The following Cities are able to apply for City status:

Aberdeen
Armagh
Bath
Bangor
Belfast
Birmingham
Bradford
Brighton & Hove
Bristol
Carlisle
Cambridge
Canterbury
Cardiff
Chester
Chichester
City of London
Coventry
Derby
Durham
Dundee
Edinburgh
Ely
Exeter
Glasgow
Gloucester
Hereford
Inverness
Kingston-upon-Hull
Lancaster
Leeds
Leicester
Lichfield
Lincoln

Lisburn
Liverpool
Londonderry/Derry
Manchester
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Newport
Newry
Norwich
Nottingham
Oxford
Peterborough
Plymouth
Portsmouth
Preston
Ripon
Salford
Salisbury
Sheffield
Southampton
Stirling
St Albans
St David`s
Stoke-on-Trent
Sunderland
Swansea
Truro
Wakefield
Wells
Westminster
Winchester
Wolverhampton
Worcester
York

(Information supplied by the Department for Constitutional Affairs)

Borough Status

Held by a Town that forms the constituency of an MP or that was originally incorporated by Royal Charter. This will include Metropolitan Boroughs and London Borough`s (that do not have City Status).

District Council Status

Responsible for the local planning, housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection, cemeteries and crematoria, leisure services and parks, tourism and electoral registration.

A full list of Districts is available on the Municipal Yearbook website.

Districts do not refer to individual Wards within a City / Town or Borough.

Judging Criteria

Clean Britain judges will look at how each city copes with litter and other related problems such as flyposting, graffiti, dog fouling, chewing gum, cigarette litter and much more.

For further information on the competition or to register your interest in taking part please contact the General Secretary on 01562 851129 or email cleanbritain@britishcleaningcouncil.org