Community relations
We are a first point of contact for people in our communities who have a query about the railway. We run a 24/7 National Helpline to help answer any questions.
In 2009/10 we set a target to resolve all enquiries from the public relating to the following lineside issues within 20 days:
- site clearing
- removing litter, graffiti, fly posting and fly-tipping
- boundary wall and fencing issues
- trees and general vegetation management
- management of invasive plants such as Japanese Knotweed, Hogweed and Ragwort.
We reached this goal on lineside issues towards the end of 2009/10 and have now set ourselves an even tougher target of resolving 90 per cent of all the enquiries that come through to our National Helpline from members of the public within 20 days by the end of 2010/11.
Working in partnership to resolve issues
Most of the enquiries received by our 24/7 National Helpline relate to vegetation, litter and graffiti. We have focused on building local partnerships wherever possible to help resolve such problems more quickly, and use community response teams for small scale litter removal, graffiti, fencing repairs and support on other local initiatives.
Managing vegetation
We continued our partnership with The Tree Council this year, with a new community planting fund for 2010/11. Building on their expert guidance, we have funded an initiative for people to re-plant trees away from the railway in areas where large-scale vegetation removal has taken place. This allows us to keep the railway safe, is environmentally friendly, and gives community groups the opportunity to enhance their local surroundings.
Graffiti
We have developed a pioneering agreement to speed up the removal of graffiti and rubbish from around London’s stations and railway lines. The new Memorandum of Understanding with London councils means a quicker response to Londoners’ complaints about litter and graffiti on land around the rail network. Under the Memorandum, we, together with boroughs have collectively agreed to:
- better coordinate cleaning schedules in areas around stations and railway lines
- seek long-term solutions to prevent fly-tipping and railway vandalism
- set time limits for removing graffiti or clearing rubbish from sites when a complaint is received
- form wider partnerships to educate people about the dangers and penalties of this antisocial behaviour.
Community volunteers
Since October 2008 we have set up 33 community volunteer schemes. These schemes allow volunteer groups to safely access and improve areas of disused land away from the operational railway. A further 14 schemes are awaiting approval, including the first in Scotland, and 17 schemes are currently being considered. There have also been 12 one-off clearances of overgrown vegetation. There are now 400 community volunteers on our scheme.