c2c joins Southend Neighbourhood Watch to clean up underpass

c2c - Britain's best performing train company with 95% of all trains running on time - has joined Kilworth Avenue and Cromer Road section of Southend on Sea's successful neighbourhood watch group to smarten up the heavily-used underpass linking Lancaster Gardens and Hastings Road. The underpass runs below the Southend Central-Southend East railway line.

c2c was originally approached by Glyn Evans (Deputy Co-ordinator, Kilworth Avenue/Cromer Road Neighbourhood Watch) who was concerned about the state of the underpass which had suffered heavy graffiti for many years, and recently had been cleaned several of times to no avail, as graffiti always re-appeared. Although c2c's responsibility for the lineside environment only extends to the stations themselves, the train company is always interested in helping local communities help themselves and the Neighbourhood Watch's obvious enthusiasm for improving the environment - something c2c is actively involved with at its own stations - struck a chord with Route Director Kevin Frazer.

Our primary activity is running a safe and punctual train service, which is just what we are doing said Kevin, but our customers come from the local community and are our neighbours and the help we could give to the Neighbourhood Watch was a small contribution we could make as neighbours ourselves.

(left to right looking at the picture, Richard Watson, local resident, Glynn Evans, Kieran Lucas (MD of Kieran Lucas construction of Westcliff),Susan Watson and Pankhida, local residents, at a photo call at the underpass to mark the completion of the coating of the underpass with anti-graffiti paint.)

c2c therefore called in local Building Contractors Kieren Lucas (based at Westcliffe) to clean off the graffiti and apply an anti-graffiti coating to the inside of the underpass. Any defacing of the new smart underpass can in future be easily removed, but hopefully with the Neighbourhood Watch keeping an even more beady eye on their new pristine underpass, the instances of this will be rare. The Neighbourhood Watch will find it much easier to keep the underpass clean.

Kevin continued, This project is part of our policy to work with our neighbours in the community to improve the environment and demonstrate that we are part of, as well as serving, the community. Obviously we cannot take over responsibility for the whole of Essex!! But because the underpass is linked to the railway we thought it was a good opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to the community we serve.

(Glyn Evans and Kevin Frazer with the magic paint )

Representatives of the Neighbourhood Watch, welcoming the improvement, said We much appreciate this terrific initiative by c2c, which has greatly improved the look of the area. We in the Neighbourhood Watch are taking action to eliminate anti-social behaviour and criminal damage; we will keep a constant watch on any re-appearance of graffiti in the underpass or elsewhere on our patch, and clean it straight away. With all parts of the community working together towards a common goal, the area has steadily improved over the past few months, and community spirit is growing strongly - please see www.kilworth.org.uk for details .