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Dateline: 29th June, 2003 Westminster to Clean Up the West End Wesminster City Council is to clean up the West End, in every sense of the word, it was announced last week. From September the council's budget for street cleaning will be £32m, a rise of £13m. This is in answer to frequent complaints from everyone from ordinary theatregoers totheatre luminaries like Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh about the state of the streets. The council is currently upgradng the street lighting in the area and is to install "the country's most sophisticated CCTV cameras" to improve security. Also in the fight against crime in the area, all beggars will be fingerprinted and applications will be made for ASBOs (Anti-Social Behaviour Orders) against frequent offenders. ASBOs are part of recent "law and order" legislation and enable courts to ban specific individuals from certain areas or from indulging in certain behaviours (such as drinking on the streets), with the threat of prison should the order be breached. They have been successfully used in many parts of the country to protect residents in areas with high crime and/or disorder problems, and have been applied to offenders as young as fifteen. Westminster councillor Simon Milton said that the aim was to make the West End "welcoming, clean and safe" and he instanced the success of measures taken in Leicester Square which had reduced crime by more than 50%. When the on-going regeneration work on Leicester Square is completed, he said, the next targets would be China Town and Covent Garden.
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