APPENDIX 3
Memorandum from British Telecom (BT)
INTRODUCTION
1. BT is pleased to provide this contribution
to the Environmental Audit Committee's investigation into graffiti
and other anti-social activities. BT's presence throughout the
UK is visible in many ways, but particularly through its approximately
100,000 payphones. BT also maintains some 88,500 street cabinets
and 4 million poles: an essential part of the fixed network. Because
of this presence on the streets, BT finds itself the victim of
graffiti and fly-posting and subject to a considerable overhead
cost in dealing with the effects of this anti-social behaviour.
2. BT is pleased to be working with the
Home Office and other operators in drawing up the detailed guidelines
for the trials of anti-graffiti provisions in the Anti-Social
Behaviour Act, but has some concerns about the practicalities
and potential costs of these measures that need to be addressed
before national rollout can be agreed.
PAYPHONES
3. BT's payphones help to raise local amenity
standards by promoting social inclusion, particularly in areas
of greatest poverty, which are often the same areas where there
are high levels of anti-social behaviour. Payphones also help
to promote community safety. 15% of genuine emergency calls are
made from payphones. Approximately one quarter of all calls to
ChildLine are from payphones, illustrating their importance in
providing a life-line through confidential, freephone lines.
4. Graffiti, fly-posting, vandalism and
litter not only have a negative impact on local amenity; they
also reduce the viability of the business by discouraging public
usage. Our own customer satisfaction research shows that cleanliness
and vandalism are significant factors impacting on customer use
of kiosks—one reason BT employs a team of 400 contractors
to provide cleaning cover 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
5. Fly-posting is subject to the same processes
and levels of attention for cleansing. In addition to removing
material and cleansing the boxes, we have been working with local
authorities to identify ways to prevent fly-posting in the first
place.
6. Pilot projects show that fly-posting
is less likely to take place over legal, smartly designed and
maintained kiosk glass advertisements. In areas badly-hit by fly-posting,
BT is looking at trialling a number of products with which to
coat kiosk glass, to which materials cannot easily be fixed. However,
this option carries with it substantial costs which may be disproportionate
to the benefits they bring.
a. Prostitute cards
7. BT removes on average 14 million prostitute
cards every year from its payphones at a cost of £250,000.
The presence of these cards is damaging to the local environment,
and presents a shared challenge for the telecoms industry, local
authorities, the police and the Government.
8. BT was instrumental in the campaign for
the criminalisation of prostitute carding and since the enactment
of the Criminal Justice & Police Act 2001, has been working
successfully with the Metropolitan Police Service in joint operations
to identify and arrest prostitute carders. These operations have
also led police to identify other criminal activities such as
illegal immigration, social security fraud, human trafficking
and child prostitution.
STREET CABINETS
9. These cabinets house parts of the BT
network which cannot be located underground and/or must be available
for easy access by our engineers. They are essential to the economic
provision and maintenance of an integrated telecommunications
system and support BT's commitment to provide universal service
throughout the UK.
10. Whilst smaller in size and less prominent
than BT's payphones, street cabinets are exposed and vulnerable
to graffiti and fly-posting, particularly in certain urban areas.
Although graffiti on these cabinets causes no operational problems
and is not a safety issue, BT recognises it can cause offence
within the locality. Our engineers who find street furniture affected
by graffiti or fly-posting to such an extent that it is a nuisance
or offensive are required to remedy the situation themselves if
possible, or to invoke a remedial process. BT also acts upon contacts
from members of the public.
THE PARTNERSHIP
APPROACH
11. BT has recent experience of working
in partnership with Local Authorities keen to tackle anti-social
behaviour. Typically, this involves targeting those areas where
graffiti appears endemic and sharing the cost of the remedial
or preventative work. BT is actively engaged in partnerships with
Rotherham, North Ayrshire, Ealing and Gravesham Councils and in
discussion with many more.
THE ANTI-SOCIAL
BEHAVIOUR ACT
12. The 2003 Anti-Social Behaviour Act provides
for Local Authorities to serve fixed notices on the owners of
street furniture to remove graffiti within 28 days. Failure to
do so allows the Local Authorities to do so themselves and recover
the cost. These provisions are to be trialled from April in 12
pilot areas and BT is working with the Home Office (and other
operators) to ensure the process is workable, effective and not
overly-bureaucratic. The success of these trials and subsequent
national roll-out hinge on a real partnership with Local Authorities
that recognises BT is the victim and not the perpetrator of this
anti-social behaviour, and does not allow for the tackling of
graffiti to become a revenue-generating opportunity for Local
Authorities.
SCHOOL AND
COMMUNITY INITIATIVES
13. BT has a number of long-running programmes
to encourage community co-operation in tackling problems such
as graffiti, vandalism and fly-posting. An example of this is
"Kiosk Kate" which we use as a focal-point to
showcase anti-vandalism messages to school-children around the
country.
14. BT's web site www.bt.com/payphonecitizen
is aimed at Key Stage 3/S1-S2 school children studying the Citizenship
curriculum. The web site contains interactive pages for students,
worksheets and teachers' notes about community involvement, the
emergency services, the effects of crime (including vandalism
and hoax calls), and social inclusion, via internet kiosks.
February 2004
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