The report of the Strategic Director, Place, (Document “Z”) provides information on the service redesign of Street Cleansing and options for operational deployment of resources.

Recommended –

(1)       That the service redesign for gateway working until 9.00am each morning be noted.

(2)       That Option 1, contained in Document “Z”, be approved as the preferred delivery model for Street Cleansing in the Keighley Area.

(3)       That the working arrangements be reviewed by the Committee after a 12 month trial period.

(Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee & Regeneration and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee)

(Damian Fisher – 01274 437062)

The report of the Strategic Director, Place, (Document “Z”) provided information on the service redesign of Street Cleansing and options for operational deployment of resources.

The Area Co-ordinator informed Members that that the budget reduction had been amended to £500, 00 and, therefore, the figures in the report were not accurate.  He confirmed that 20 members of staff would now be retained and the Keighley District would receive four additional employees. 

In response to Members’ questions, the Area Co-ordinator reported that Keighley currently had 14 employees, including one on long term sick leave and would receive four additional members of staff.  The number of mechanical sweepers would still be reduced by five.

With regard to the amended budget, the Area Co-ordinator explained that four additional people would be employed in the area and would be deployed in a specific way.  The plan across the District would be that Clean Teams would start at 6am and clean the ‘gateway’ routes, a list of which was detailed at Appendix A to Document “Z”.  The staff would work on these routes between 6am and 9am and there was the option to consider what they should do after 9am.  The Area Co-ordinator stated that due to the reductions it was not possible to operate Clean Teams on a ward basis and they would cover a number of wards instead.  He informed Members that the operation was moving towards a zonal system where constituencies would be divided, graded by cleanliness and visited by the whole team on either a daily, weekly or fortnightly basis.  Most Area Co-ordinators had followed the same procedure, however, Keighley would have more staff and could keep a Ward Clean Team.  The zonal model was restrictive and would mean that teams would be less likely to respond to issues, however, the Ward Clean Team could go where required.  There would be 17 staff in the Keighley area and they would be joined by the parks staff and manager, therefore, a more flexible approach would be able to be adopted.  The Area Co-ordinator then suggested that the ward based system was retained.

During the discussion Members raised questions and were informed by the Area Co-ordinator that:

·         Street cleaning on a weekend was challenging.  Staff would work overtime on Saturday and Sunday morning, however, there was no proposal to increase the overtime budget.

·         The possibility of advertising jobs that included weekend working could be considered.

·         Weekend working was more expensive and the litter problems were dependent on the area.

·         The roads chosen to be cleaned had been identified centrally.

·         The routes identified in Keighley West could be revisited.

·         It may become obvious which routes would not need cleaning every day.

·         It would be preferable if the routes were reviewed and revised following a six month trial.

·         Park staff would be able to be deployed to clean the parks in the area.

Resolved –

(1)       That the service redesign for gateway working until 9.00am each morning be noted.

(2)       That Option 1, contained in Document “Z”, be approved as the preferred delivery model for Street Cleansing in the Keighley Area.

(3)       That the working arrangements be reviewed by the Committee after a 6 month trial period.

(4)       That the gateway and priority routes within Keighley West be re-examined.

(5)       That the feasibility of employing new staff on a contract that includes weekend working be investigated.

OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE: Corporate

ACTION: Strategic Director, Place