UK councils see increase in dog fouling complaints during COVID-19

At a time when people are making more use of the open and green spaces in their communities – reports of dog fouling increased by nearly 40% in some local authorities across the UK.

In Scotland, environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful has launched a nationwide call for people across Scotland to help record the scale of the dog fouling problem with their #turdtag campaign. The information will form a unique new data set to be used to increase awareness and drive action to tackle one of Scotland’s worst environmental complaints.

Across Wales, councils have seen an increase in the number of dog fouling complaints. For example, Pembrokeshire County Council and Welsh town and community councils are receiving increasing numbers of complaints of dog fouling. There has been a notable rise in dog walkers using the countryside, although the rules for exercise remain to stay local to your home.

In England, there has been an increase in the number of complaints made by members of the public about owners not picking up after their dogs, in particular since the start of the lockdown. However, The Public Spaces Protection Order still exists, which makes it an offence to not pick up dog mess in public open spaces with a £100 fixed penalty notice.

And with the increase in the number of people walking as part of their daily exercise during the coronavirus outbreak, councils across England wish to remind people that the law is still place – with particular reference to parks, public open spaces and beaches; including the ban on dogs using certain sections of the beaches from 1 May until the end of September.

If you have seen an increase in dog fouling within your local communities or your local authority, Helping Hand Environmental can help with the Handiscoop the pooper scooper  your perfect portable companion to tackle dog fouling, hygienically, at a safe distance easily picks up from/off of any surface.

Key features:

  • The 81cm/32-inch length prevents the need for bending down to pick up dog fouling, ideal for frontline operational duties, and a great pooper scooper for use at home in your gardens/on lawns
  • The shorter length 18-inch is ideal for taking with you on walks, journeys or in a vehicle
  • It’s lightweight and portable, so you can take it anywhere
  • It doesn’t matter what surface you are picking up the mess from – sand, gravel, grass – it works anywhere.
  • Can be used with or without biodegradable poop scoop bags!

You can find out more about the Handiscoop pooper scooper or order HERE or call our sales team for more information on 01531 635678.

COVID-19 update – May 13 2020

With the recent announcements from the Government, the COVID-19 outbreak continues to cause a lot of uncertainty across the UK. We can all help control the spread of the virus by being sensible in how we go about our daily activity.

Here in Herefordshire, our manufacturing is at full capacity and we have a large supply of community care equipment available for immediate despatch. To support patients discharge from hospital, safely, efficiently and effectively, to their home. We also offer priority delivery for NHS trusts, local authorities and care homes.

To ensure the safety of our customers and colleagues, the Sales teams are working remotely and have been busy working across digital platforms to complete virtual meetings, deliver training session, education and answer any technical queries.

Whilst frontline staff continue to support waste collections, street cleansing and facilities management services, this week invidividual volunteers are now conducting solo litter picking as part of their daily exercise routines – so we wanted to reassure that we are here to help when you need us.

Face to face appointments: we now have full PPE available and a team of Field Sales Advisors to support with essential appointments only allowing for the appropriate safety protocol. Please contact your local Advisor to discuss your specific requirements should you need a meeting.

Other means of communication: We have range of digital resources available, e-meeting facilities like Skpye, Facetime and Mircosoft Teams, webinars on our products, campaigns and services and of course we’re at the end of the phone – contact our Environmental division on 01531 635678.

We remain committed to being responsible for what we do, those we serve and truly value the support you give in trading with us.

Please take care of yourselves and each other.

Gavin James, Managing Director

Solo Litterpicking Guidance

We encourage everyone to stay at home where possible, but we have been asked over the last few weeks for some guidance around the subject of solo litter picking during this time.

Helping Hand Environmental understand a lot of individual volunteers are still wishing to litter pick by themselves/solo, or with their own household as part of their daily exercise – with many understanding the therapeutic benefits of spending time outdoors; boosting their immune system and a positive impact on your mental health and well-being.

Following government advice on social distancing and where safe to do so, a solo litter pick could form part of your daily exercise routine.

However, if you wish to continue with your own litter-picking activity then please ensure you follow the latest Government advice on COVID-19 to ensure you protect your own safety, and the safety of others:

  • Always use a Litterpicker
  • Wear protective gloves
  • Wash your hands (before and after your litter pick)
  • Use your own carrier bag, bucket or cleansing bag to collect litter in
  • Don’t touch any litter with your hands
  • Don’t pick up litter with your hands
  • Don’t collect PPE litter – like disposable gloves or face masks – report them to the council
  • Don’t touch your face whilst out litter picking
  • Always keep a safe 2 meters away from any other member(s) of the public
  • Sanitise your equipment before and after use
  • Once collected, you will need to dispose of your litter at home using your household general waste or recycling bins – your local authority will not have capacity to collect your litter bags during this time so please do not leave litter related bags out next to your bins.

In light of recent Government advise,  all community group and more then 2+ people clean-ups should cease. Therefore you can litter pick individually, with only the members of your own household or only one other person outside your household (but at social distance) as part of your daily exercise routine.

If you need further help, our team are working remotely from home but are still at the end of the phone, but if we can answer any questions – do give Helping Hand a call, 01531 635678. We have a range of litter picking guides in our Download section and also a range of reusable litter pickers safer working litter picking products – like our NEW folding Safe Pick Litter Picker and Sharp Pouch to help you undertake your solo picks; with safety and confidence.

Most importantly from everyone at Helping Hand Environmental, stay safe 🙂

We’re Here For You

Supporting our customers

The UK is in its sixth week of lock down and whilst things are far from normal, we hope you are staying safe and well. There’s been a lot of change – whether that’s getting to grips with new routines at home, spending Easter with loved ones virtually, or adjusting to new ways of working and shopping!

In these challenging times we just wanted to remind you that the whole Environmental Team at Helping Hand is still here for you!

We are definitely missing seeing our lovely customers and each other. The challenges of recent weeks mean that now more than ever, we need to think about taking care of ourselves and each other. Staying connected is a big part of achieving mental well-being and to keep ourselves well and the business running we have set up our customer service teams from home, invested in new ways of video conferencing and adapted our production facilities to ensure employee safety and well-being.

Supporting our communities

 We are proud to be supporting our regional communities with front line provisions as well as maintaining our supply into councils and litter heroes globally. More recently we have donated £5000 worth of food to our local food bank in Herefordshire and been approached by our NHS customers to become a Frontline service provider.

All the above is made possible through a strong and supportive team at Helping Hand and a customer base that has remained loyal and patient through times of change.

Thank you for your continued business and support. We remain here for you when you need us,

Take care and stay well. Together we will come through this!

 

Lend a Helping Hand this Earth Day

Like most of us, our everyday habits have the tendancy to create waste – we sometimes purchase and replace items without even thinking about their social, economic and environmental impact.

This Earth Day (Wednesday 22nd April) by buying a longer-lasting, reusable version of those very such items will be a better investment long term – both in terms of our wallets and for the planet; saving lots of carbon miles in the process!

For example, single-use throw away coffee cups can quite easily be replaced with reusable keep cups. Plastic supermarket carrier bags can be replaced with reusable cotton or hessain versions which will withstand multiple usage. Products like these quickly end up paying for themselves and unlike their single-use counterparts (which are often imported) – your handcrafted eco-friendly version won’t have to replace anytime soon.

Only the best products can be used over and over again and the same can be said about our Litterpickers.

The Helping Hand Company pride ourselves for being #1 for sustainable litter clearance hand tools; manufactured in Britain, from us to you, from our factories in Herefordshire, #factory2hand

Our 100% reusable range of Helping Hand litter pickers, bag hoops, clean up kits and litter picking carts are high quality, sustainability manufactured and built to last. And we’ve made this public knowledge on our litterpickers bar labels and compostable cartons 🙂

For example, our Ranger MAX litter picker has a Ranger Recycle Kit which extends the product lifecycle by upto 300%. Our NEW Handicart Lite and NEW Handicart Duo litterpicking carts are made from 35% recycled materials and our Eco Education Resource Booklet supports the next generation in learning about the 8 doorways of Eco-Schools helping schools achieve Green Flag status and creating #EcoWarriors, all printed on recycled paper of course!

As community campaign specialists, Helping Hand have also developed a range of environmental charity livery Litterpicker’s and Streetmaster’s  – including a Keep Britain Tidy, Keep Wales Tidy, Keep Scotland Beautiful, Keep Northern Ireland Beauiful, Neder Schoon and a folding version for our friends at The 2 Minute Foundation – view the collection HERE

All our #reuse charity pickers have been designed in partnership with leading environmental charities and as a business we have donated over £100,000 from the sale of our products to help support their global efforts in protecting our planet, our oceans and our next generation.

We are 100% reusable and proud of it!

#notsingleuse

#sustainablemanufacturing

#BuyBritish

We’re Here For You – Meet The Team

Meet The Team – say hello to team Helping Hand Environmental ♻️

Anna 👋 Carly 👋 Chrissie 👋 Craig 👋 Dave 👋 Debbie 👋Lindsay 👋 Patrick 👋 Stacey 👋 Theo 👋

Our Queen’s Award for Enterprise winning division includes internal and external sales representatives for the UK & Europe.

Helping Hand Environmental is super proud to be supplying Local Authorities, Frontline Service providers and Litter Heroes of all ages with Sustainable Litter Clearance Hand Tools; manufactured from our factories in Herefordshire.

We are definitely missing seeing our lovely customers and each other, that’s why it’s so important we all stay connected. Keeping in regular contact over the phone, through email or through video calls will help us all to stay connected right now.

And if online communication isn’t possible – never under estimate the value of a regular telephone call, text or letter in the post to offer social contact and support. It might just make someone’s day.

Helping Hand Environmental are here for you 👋

Contact our friendly team:

📱☎️ 01531 635678
💻 📧sales@helpinghand.co.uk
🖥️ 🖱️HHEnvironmental.co.uk

Look after yourselves & each other💚

#StaffSelfieWeek
#WeAreHereForYou
#stayhomesavelives

Lending a Helping Hand this Easter

Helping Hand Environmental are delighted to announced The Helping Hand Company has donated £2,500 to Ledbury Food Bank and £2,500 to the Hereford Food Bank UK to help our local communities this Easter.

To date our Helping Hand Community Trust has donated £20,000 to local good causes and projects across Herefordshire & Worcester.

Lisa Preddy, Chair of the Community Trust said “This is exactly what our community scheme was set up to do, to help our local communities in time of need. It’s so wonderful to be able to help out and work with such wonderful organisations who are making a difference to people’s live everyday”

Read more about our company’s wide local community projects: https://www.helpinghand.co.uk/projects-community/

 

Local Authorities COVID-19 Response to Front Line Services

Thanks to our friends at APSE, Helping Hand Environmental are able to share UK local authorities briefing document, which will be of particular interest to our customers in the following sectors:

  • Waste Collection
  • Waste Recycling Collections
  • Street Cleansing Services
  • Parks & Green Spaces

With the onset of ever more stringent measures to control the spread of the coronavirus, local authorities across the UK are having to implement pre-prepared business continuity plans and prioritise the levels of services they provide in the following ways:

  1. Priority rating being allocated to different service elements
  2. Arrangements for the safety of staff as well as covering staff absence
  3. Service continuity planning involving the redeployment and training of staff
  4. Innovative approaches such as providing mobile waste collection facilities 

APSE asked their member authorities for information as to how they plan to deliver services in light of the impact of the virus.

From responses, it is apparent that the majority are now referring to their pre-prepared Business Continuity Plans – with commonality across the UK with regards to the changes to delivery either implemented or ready to be implemented should the need arise.

Nominally, Local Authorities are prioritising their services based on resident needs into Primary, Secondary and Tertiary services:

Primary: (essential services – all staff redeployed to ensure service delivery)

  • Waste Collection – including recycling, food, clinical
  • Cemetery services
  • Public & contractual transport

Secondary: (medium priority – redeploy staff in phase 2 to ensure primary service delivery)

  • Street Cleansing – scheduled cleansing i.e emptying bins, town centres
  • Street Cleansing – reactive cleansing i.e fly tipping, reported litter
  • Playground checks

Tertiary: (non-essential)

  • Road/pavements sweeping
  • Grounds maintenance – wedding, planting, roundabouts
  • Bin deliveries to residents or commercial properties
  • Allotments
  • Abandoned cars/vehicles
  • Locking parks and general park duties
  • Countryside management

Key Outcome: Waste collection is seen by all local authorities and the UK government as a priority front line service with key workers status.

Local Authority operational changes due to COVID-19:

  • General waste collection has been given top priority followed then by dry recyclable collections, food and clinical waste.
  • Garden waste collections has been suspended
  • Bulky waste collections have been halted
  • Residual waste not placed in a household bin will not be collected
  • Street cleansing staff and grounds maintenance staff are being redeployed where needed and trained to support waste collections.
  • Recycling centres will remain open
  • Level of service would be very much dependent of the level of the sickness/absences
  • Street cleansing would prioritise town centres, and areas of high footfall like near supermarkets and litter and dog fouling bin emptying as highest priority.
  • Ancillary services like road sweeping, cleaning alleyways, sweeping of rural roads would be reduced
  • Reduction in large mechanical sweeping to free staff up for other duties

Additional Considerations:

  • Parking recycling vehicles at bring sites to increase capacity
  • Parking recycling vehicles to provide temporary bring sites (weekends)
  • Putting recyclables into residual waste in remote locations (last resorts)

Protection of Staff:

  • In relations to members of the public who have contracted the corona virus or are awaiting test results, local authorities are insisting any tissues or associated waste are double bagged and in placed only in household general waste bins – where waste will be held for 72 hours before disposal.
  • Staggering clocking in and off time for crews at their depots
  • Restrict number of operatives per waste vehicle (now just a driver and loader)
  • Support staff and non-essential management/supervisors are required to work from home
  • Social distancing is a key requirement to ensure the health of staff but to take into account the number of staff who have underlying heath conditions.

Undoubtedly there will be significant changes and demands being placed on local authorities during the next few months but our councils will undoubtedly rise to the challenge and meet the need of the public and their customers.

Our Coronavirus Contingency Update

To all our valued customers,

In these uncertain times, our thoughts are with all those who have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. We continue to work round the clock, 7 days a week to support our customers who provide critical front line services across the NHS and Local government.

In line with Government advice, to limit the potential spread of the virus, we have suspended all face to face visits, with all teams working remotely from home.

Your local sales manager and regional team is available at the end of a phone, across digital platforms such as Skype/WhatsApp/Facetime and email to provide support and answer any queries.

The Helping Hand Company remain committed to being responsible for what we do, those we serve and truly value the support you give in trading with us.

Please take care of yourselves and each other.

Gavin James, Managing Director

 

Our Coronavirus Contingency

To our valued customers,

At Helping Hand Company, our commitment to supporting the welfare of our employees, suppliers and customers is as strong as ever. Our priority remains to the health and well being of all we serve.

Full details of our contingency plans can be read here

I want to also take the opportunity to thank you for your continued support and thank all of the team who are working incredibly hard to ensure we can continue to support our customers well.

Gavin James, Managing Director

The Helping Hand Company