Agenda item

Street Cleansing Contract Performance

Minutes:

The Head of Operations submitted a report that provided an overview of the performance of street cleansing activities delivered by contractors on behalf of East Herts Council. She introduced and welcomed Jeanette Lowden, Client Side Contract Manager, to the meeting and advised that this report had been submitted to Members following a direct request from the Committee.

 

The Head of Operations said that the report outlined methodology and current performance. She said that the report also acknowledged some of the challenges being faced by the Council as well as highlighting some of the areas for improvement that the authority needed to take forward.

 

Members were advised that traditionally there would be a contract renewal task and finish group as there was now a joint waste service. The Head of Operations said that the recommendation moving forward was for a joint cross party Member working group to be established to look at contract specification in terms of design.

 

Councillor Goldspink asked who had the contract for cleaning parks and open spaces and also asked how decisions were made in respect of how many litter bins and dog waste bins were provided.

 

Councillor Goldspink asked who was responsible for unblocking drains and gulleys and also asked if there was more the Council could do to help community groups who swept up autumn leaves in their own roads, perhaps by collecting up and disposing of all the bags of leaves which had been swept up.

 

Councillor Goldspink asked if the street cleaners and the staff responsible for waste collections were interchangeable. The Head of Operations said that Grounds Maintenance was carried out by Glendale Environmental Services as part of a separate contract. She advised that Hertfordshire County Council carried out the clearance of drains and gullies.

 

The Head of Operations said that an assessment based approach was taken where requests were made for an additional street bin or a new parks and open spaces. She said that there were inconsistencies in relation to the two contracts in respect of grounds maintenance and waste. Members were advised that a bin infrastructure audit had been carried out and the Council now needed to have streamlined principles in terms of litter and bin collections.

 

The Head of Operations acknowledged that behaviours had changed and more people were now using parks and open spaces. She said that Members were being asked to join Officers in working out what a future contract should look like. Members were advised that services needed to be more streamlined and a holistic approach needed to be taken.

 

The Head of Operations referred to campaign work whereby the public were being encouraged to take litter home. The Contract Manager said that leaf fall could be placed in garden waste bins and leaf clearance was carried out in flood prone roads as part of the normal cleansing cycles. She advised that these roads were inspected each year and any roads particularly susceptible to leaf fall would be added to an additional cleanse if this was required. Members were reminded that leaf clearance had been removed from the street cleansing contract in 2010.

 

The Contract Manager said that the Council did assist local community groups with litter picking events and this waste would have be treated as general street detritus and disposed of as such. She referred to the “adopt an area” service and encouraged residents to visit the website.

 

The Head of Operations said that not all Officers were multi skilled and interchangeable due to the different vehicle licences that were required. She said that Officers were redeployed where possible and the main priority would always be residential bin collections over street cleansing.

 

Councillor Devonshire referred to page 47 of the report and a HEAT map of street inspections. He asked if the Council could concentrate on the five or six areas to achieve Grade B or above. The Contract Manager explained that areas Graded B or below by Contract Officers who carried out inspections, were raised with the contractor to be rectified and brought back to the expected standard within a specified timescale. She explained the purpose of the HEAT map and the reasons for clusters on the map. Members were given an explanation regarding the timings of inspections and the grading.

 

Councillor Wyllie, on behalf of Councillor Bell, asked how the waste collection service tracked missed bins which could cause bins to overflow on a regular basis in some areas. He further mentioned on her behalf that some Parish Councils were willing to empty these bins when they are missed but would want assurances that the Council would collect them at a later point.

 

The Head of Operations said that with regard to missed bin collections on street, the Council relied upon Contract Officers and the public to report this. She said a new initiative was a “hot spot” list for East Herts bins and this would feed into the performance management regime.

Members were advised that it was important that Parish Councils continued to report issues so that the Council could redress the matter.

 

Councillor Wyllie, on behalf of Councillor Crystall, asked if the Head of Service received feedback or interaction from Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) about the impact of street cleaning on the drainage system and what could be done to improve services. The Head of Operations said that she and Waste Officers had met with HCC on a regular basis and nothing had specifically been raised to date in respect of drainage systems.  She said that this matter would be on the agenda for the next meeting.

 

Councillor Hollebon expressed concern about the cleansing of footways and alleyways in her ward. She also said that litter and dead weeds were appalling in all of the footpaths around Thorley. The Head of Operations asked her to provide further information so that she could investigate.

 

Councillor Hollebon said that she agreed with the suggestion whereby the contractors and local Members worked together to decide on the grading. She emphasised the importance of picking up litter before grass was cut as the litter was sprayed on to grass verges.

 

The Head of Operations asked for specific details to be passed onto Officers in respect of Thorley. She said that meetings were taking place more regularly with HCC and the ultimate goal was for litter picking to be carried out before grass verge cutting.

 

Councillor Curtis asked how the high, medium and low intensity of use performance zones had been determined as detailed in table one on page 37 of the report. He talked about the laborious nature of the customer complaints process and asked if Members could see a HEAT map of the frequency of where street inspections had been undertaken.

 

The Head of Operations said that the contract included an appendix that classified every part of the District and that was mainly based upon footfall. She said that Officers could give Members examples of where high and low performance areas were located in the District. She said that grades A and B could be disaggregated as suggested by Councillor Curtis.

 

Councillor Curtis commented on the need to be conscious of the spatial basis that had been applied on the HEAT map. He said that there might be areas that were not shown on the map as they had not been checked very often or at all. The Contract Manager said that Zone One were main shopping areas were inspected on a weekly basis. She said that the outer regions were inspected on the basis of the NI195 inspections, whereby each road or path in East Herts was inspected at least once over the course of a year.

 

Councillor R Buckmaster asked how often inspections were carried out on sections of a road that were Grade D in terms of how often post clean detritus inspections were carried out. The Contract Manager invited Members to contact her directly regarding detritus in the street.

 

Councillor Drake asked if there could be greater frequency of inspection and collection in quarter one of the year if residents were generating more litter in quarter one. She commented on the trial of larger wheeled bins in laybys and asked if bins with a smaller opening could be trialled to cater for wrappers of items eaten in a layby. She asked if slightly larger bins could be provided in parks to ensure that waste from fish and chips or packed lunches could fit into the bin.

 

Councillor Drake expressed the need for caution around changing the location of bins without carefully looking at the data in terms of size and amount of waste that went into a particular bin. She commented on the safety element of leaves in wet weather and asked if there was more cleansing in wet weather or did this take place irrespective of whether or not it had not rained.

 

The Head of Operations said that the bin audit looked at the frequency of collections, the location and size of bins. She said that there needed to be a lot more consistency in the approach being taken by the Council.

 

The Contract Manager said that in quarter one and quarter four, the Council did see more litter and detritus building up and more complaints were reported to the Council at those times. She commented on the misuse of bins during the trial in laybys and the alternative options being considered by Officers. She asked that Members contact Officers if there were particular areas of concern.

 

Councillor Kemp touched on the issue of leaf fall and the clearance of slippery pathways between estates. The Contract Manager asked if Members could provide with her information so that Officers could look into problems of this nature.

 

Councillor Curtis proposed and Councillor Devonshire seconded, a motion that the comments made by Overview and Scrutiny Committee in respect of the review of performance of the street cleaning contract be passed on to the Executive.

 

After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

 

RESOLVED – that the comments made by Overview and Scrutiny Committee in respect of the review of performance of the street cleaning contract be passed on to the Executive.

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