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ARCH Best Practice Awards 2008

Working efficiently to deliver improvement: Norwich City Council

Norwich City Council won an ARCH Best Practice Award 2008 for its Mow and Grow gardening scheme.

Mow and Grow is a partnership initiative to help vulnerable Norwich City Council tenants maintain and enjoy their garden.

The scheme was first launched in May 2007. It has proved so successful that the team of volunteers, now working at full capacity, are seeking to expand. Since its introduction 100 tenants have benefited from a one-off £10 garden clearance and 80 tenants have signed up to the follow-up maintenance visits. A number of gardens required several full day visits to initially clear undergrowth, sometimes from both front and back of the property.

During this first year the team, led by a paid coordinator, have displayed their green credentials by taking large quantities of green waste back to their training centre to pellet and compost. This helps to keep the disposal of non-recyclable rubbish to a minimum.

The council are hoping to build on this success and, funding permitting, expand the service in June so that even more vulnerable tenants can benefit from the service during summer 2008.

To qualify for the scheme, applicants must:

Not have any household members or relatives or friends living nearby who are capable of maintaining the garden
be in receipt of qualifying benefits

Applicants who are not in receipt of the qualifying benefits may still be assessed for eligibility if they have a health problem or disability which renders it difficult for them to maintain their garden themselves, even if they are not formally registered as disabled.

Referrals are made through the customer contact team or as the result of an officer visit, and the scheme has been promoted both in the tenants' newsletter 'Tenant Talk' and to staff within the Community and Neighbourhoods directorate.

Neighbourhood housing officers and sheltered housing scheme managers make assessment visits to verify information and confirm eligibility. Referrals are then logged on to the workflow management system and the appropriate charges added to rent accounts on the housing management system. Regular contact is made with the Mow and Grow co-ordinator to ensure new referrals are passed on and to monitor feedback of the service.

All tenants eligible for garden clearance pay a £10 charge, irrespective of whether they are on benefits, and the optional maintenance service allows for approximately six additional visits throughout the year at a cost of £3.60 per week. For tenants in receipt of housing benefit the maintenance charge will be fully covered, as it is a condition of tenancy that the garden is maintained.

One satisfied customer said:

"I cannot express the pleasure it has given me having my garden sorted, and with your assistance it means I can now get outside a lot which was difficult due to my disabilities."

For further information:

Sustaining and regenerating neighbourhoods: Broxtowe BC

Ted Czerniak

Ted Czerniak, Director of Housing,
Health and Leisure at Broxtowe BC

Broxtowe BC won the award for its Neighbourhood Pride initiative work to regenerate an area known as 'The Buildings', which was one of the council's worst areas of deprivation.

A former mining area, 'The Buildings' comprises of six residential streets close to the centre of Eastwood. Three of the streets retain former miner's cottages, and the birthplace of DH Lawrence. The site is within a conversation area, part of which was redeveloped during the 1970's.

Broxtowe BC runs an environmental improvement initiative called Neighbourhood Pride. The purpose of this is to deliver a wide range of small projects quickly, to clean up areas, improve street scene, car parks and provide seed funding.

In 2006, a successful bid for funding through Neighbourhood Pride was made, and funding of £50k was awarded. The council worked with local residents in devising a way forward to regenerate the area using the funding. A consultation event was held, which led to the formation of a resident group. A site newsletter was formulated, and all interested organisations were drawn together to establish opportunities and a holistic strategy.

This led to:

The installation of a CCTV system
Improved lighting
Enhancements to resident's car parks
New street furniture
Plenty of green areas
Redesign of amenity areas

Alongside these improvements, properties were refurbished and enhancement works were undertaken on council commercial premises being used as craft workshops.

Partners were encouraged to undertake works, for example, Nottinghamshire County Council funded a project to form a linear park on an unused green area. This funding is worth £80k over two years.

On a smaller scale, a private landowner contributed towards a security scheme worth £8k, to help close a local drugs hot spot.

Currently, the Council is paying Nottinghamshire County Council landscape group to undertake a concept design for Princes Street, the main street through the site. This is a speculative undertaking costing £7k, and it is hoped that this will help to secure funding for a larger project. Designs are being developed which will reflect the local heritage within the living street scene.