Take Pride in Your City Progress

City councillors will be updated next week on progress made through the council’s Take Pride in Your City campaign.

The long-running programme, which exists to encourage residents to help in the effort to prevent litter, dog fouling, chewing gum litter, fly-tipping, and graffiti from blighting neighbourhoods, was refreshed and extended for a further two years in 2022.

Since then, Dundee has been recognised nationally in a number of schemes by independent bodies, including:

• Ten city groups received ‘Outstanding’ level certification in the ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ (IYN) scheme in 2022, run by the Royal Horticultural Society and Keep Scotland Beautiful;
• Seven Green Flag Awards for parks and greenspaces were retained in 2022/23 and 2023/24;
• In the 2022 Beautiful Scotland Awards, Bonnie Dundee won a Gold Award, Broughty Ferry in Bloom were presented with a Silver Gilt, the Ardler Environment Group with a certificate of recognition in a non-judged Residential Community category, and the Council received the prestigious Wright Sustainability Award;
• For the twentieth consecutive year, Broughty Ferry Beach was given a Scotland’s Beach Award as well as being graded as ‘Excellent’ for its bathing water quality.

Climate, Environment & Biodiversity Committee Convener Heather Anderson said: “I never cease to be blown away by the efforts of so many volunteers and staff who work tirelessly all year to help Dundee look it’s best.

“The Take Pride in Your City Campaign encompasses so many different initiatives and it’s always good to see the city and the work of so many citizens be recognised by all these awards and accolades.

“Anyone can get involved and everyone is welcome. Joining a community group, helping with a litter pick, learning how to grow food or look after some of our public spaces, or even just recycling correctly – all of it makes a difference and it makes all of us feel better about where we live.”

Progress driven from council services and community volunteers has also taken place in the last year, a wide range of work included:

• Significant progress made on a city-wide street litter bin audit, as well as the completion of a city centre street furniture audit;
• An increase of registered litter picks in the city took place from 44 in 2021 to 50 in 2022;
• Community Clean-Ups in targeted locations took place and will continue as part of the overall campaign;
• Environmental Compliance Team Days of Action to reduce littering, litter resulting from poorly presented domestic waste and commercial waste, and fly-tipping, took place in the City Centre in June 2022 and the West End in June 2023;
• The Council’s Waste Education Strategy has been updated, including ongoing school visits and the Eco-Schools programme;
• The successful introduction of the City Centre Commercial Waste project took place in March 2023 for its 12-month pilot;
• The Council’s Humanitarian Protection Team with the Countryside Rangers ran a weekly ‘Back to Nature’ group for Ukrainian refugees;
• Partnership support was provided to assist with the V&A Dundee’s ‘Plastic Remaking Our World’ exhibition.

Councillor Heather Anderson added: “It is very encouraging to see the scale of Take Pride-related activity contributing to the campaign’s aims and objectives.

“With our established collaborative efforts from members of the public, community groups and council employees, we can keep up our proud efforts and continue our important partnership working.”

The progress report, which can be read in full on the Dundee City Council website, will be put to councillors at the city’s Climate, Environment and Biodiversity Committee on Monday 21st August 2023.

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