IMPROVING WIMBLEDON

Town Ranger – Our dedicated eyes and ears on the street

Our Town Ranger patrols the streets daily investigating and reporting everything from graffiti and water leaks to overflowing bins and neglected grot spots. His role is vital in maintaining clean and safe streets in Wimbledon. He assists with issues including:

• Flytipping
• Graffiti
• Sticker and flyposters
• Broken paving slabs, blocked drains and pot holes
• Utility company issues such as water leaks and power outages
• Commercial waste issues

Our work with Merton Council

Wimbledon Town Centre is maintained by Merton Council. This includes the public highway and pavements. By working in close partnership with Merton Council, Love Wimbledon provides added value to their services. As soon as we know about graffiti, we immediately forward this on to the council. As part of our legal agreement with Merton Council it must be cleaned up within 5 days or, if offensive within 24 hours.

We provide additional street cleansing services to remove gum, jetwash the streets and clean up the bus stops – to make Wimbledon that bit nicer.

Looking Good

It’s great to be part of making a town centre look better. Whether it’s through introducing lamppost banners, hanging baskets, flower beds (we’ve experimented with cabbages!) or seasonal lighting to make winter a bit more joyful, we always search for something new. We love seeing the smiles and getting the comments from our community like when we began investing in the stunning 25ft Christmas tree. Our businesses see the benefits to their staff of having an attractive place to work and for the wider community who shop, go out in and visit Wimbledon.

Installations in town

Love Wimbledon worked with Merton Council to install a Rainbow Crossing on The Broadway next to New Wimbledon Theatre and the recently opened bar CMYK. The multi-coloured crossing has been created in the design of the Rainbow Flag – which has been adopted, across the globe, as a symbol to celebrate the LGBT+ community and its diversity. The crossing aims to delight and bring a smile to everyone using it, whilst sending out the Welcome to Wimbledon message. Read the full story.

Feeling safe

Wimbledon is one of the safest town centres in Greater London and we need to keep it that way. That’s why we offer retail and evening economy businesses tools to help combat crime.  Love Wimbledon promotes the use of both Town Link radio and Littoralis (anti-social behaviour secure information sharing system). Used together, these systems assist in reducing crime and facilitate joint working between the police and the retail sector.

Town Link Radio

Our town link digital radio system connects businesses with each other, Wimbledon Town Centre police and CCTV offering real time updates, shared information, additional employee security and crime prevention. Radios are available to purchase or to rent.

Working with both licensees and retailers, Wimbledon Town Centre has a town link digital radio scheme. Radios are connected to Merton Council’s CCTV suite and are carried by Love Wimbledon’s Town Ranger, South West Trains, and by police officers in the town centre, enabling swift and effective real-time intelligence sharing. Love Wimbledon manages the Town Link digital radio scheme on behalf of all Love Wimbledon BID members in conjunction with Wall to Wall Communications.

The scheme links retailers with each other, Wimbledon Town Centre police, and CCTV operators via handheld radios, so they can exchange information in real time and prevent crime. For example, if retailers experience shoplifting or anti-social behavior they can alert all other members of the scheme instantly. The system also provides additional security support to employees. The cost of the radio equates to about a £1 a day and there are currently approx 45 businesses on the system.

FREE Online Crime Reporting (Littoralis)

We run a secure intranet portal, with collates local crime intelligence to help you share information with other businesses in town on issues and incidents that affect you. They system is easy to use and:

• Allows users to input and share crime intelligence directly to the Police, Safer Merton, CCTV and other businesses
• Provides information about local offenders
• Details individuals banned from the town centre

Retailers and late-night venues are encouraged to upload images of people who have carried out an offence on their premises in order for members to identify the suspect, for the police to investigate, or to detect and prevent crime through the banned-from-one, banned-from-all principle. The website is administered by Love Wimbledon and includes a gallery of the most prolific offenders as well as details of recent incidents and updates from the police. It can be accessed via desktop and mobile app and is available free to all town centre businesses and retailers.