Founded: 17th Apr 2008

Town or City: Walthamstow
Areas covered: Aubrey Road, Howard Road, Milton Road, Byron Road, part of Hoe St and Forest Road.

Our group was established in 2006 with the aim of tackling the twin problems of crime and grime in our area.  We also set up a Neighbourhood Watch.

We hold an annual clean up of our street - weeding, graffiti removal, litter picking, etc and we strive to keep the residents informed about council plans, issues in the borough and any crime problems.

One of the great benefits this has brought to our street is that it has helped to form a greater sense of community with many residents meeting each other for the first time.

We work closely with the Police Safer Neighbourhood Team and this yields additional benefits as it means that together we can respond more quickly to incidents of anti-social behaviour or report crime more easily on the direct mobile number.

We find though, that our council (Waltham Forest) is not good at enforcing the Clean Neighbourhood & Environment Act 2005. Fly-tipping is common in the borough and little serious effort is made to combat it - with few if any prosecutions.

We intend to expand to include neighbouring streets.