National web-2.0 dogturd photo scheme goes live

Orange's latest wheeze is to get customers photographing dog shit, and other street clutter, for forwarding to local authorities – in the hope they can afford to do something about it.

The idea actually comes from LoveCleanStreets, but has been picked up by Orange as part of the operator's "Do Some Good" campaign aimed at those who want to volunteer to improve their local community but are too lazy to actually do anything physical about it.

Using the Do Some Good app you can learn how to be greener, recommend a coffee shop that should be contributing to cleaner water, or share your knowledge about little-noticed green spaces in the UK's cities, and now you can take photographs of untidy streets so that someone else can fix them.

LoveCleanStreets already runs an online service for concerned Londoners to let their council know something is wrong, without having to resort to letter writing. One just snaps the offending droppings, fly tipping, graffiti, shopping cart or abandoned council property, and LoveCleanStreets will report it to the appropriate authority and track its progress.

The service is run by Lewisham Council, and is based on that authority's successful Love Lewisham service which has been doing much the same thing for the last five years with (apparently) great success. The LoveCleanStreets site still states that it only covers the capital, but we're assured by Orange that the new service is nationwide.

The whole thing is funded by Capital Ambition, which might object to the nationwide expansion, and Keep Britain Tidy. Both those are government funded (though Keep Britain Tidy tops up the coffers with market research and training). ®