The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “R”) updates Members on the Street Cleansing service including detailed information on complaints and performance in relation to litter and flytipping. The report also provides information on recent major changes including the merger with Parks and Green spaces, service redesign and the recent recruitment of new staff.

Recommended –

(1)       Bradford West Area Committee notes the information in this report, particularly the major changes to the service, the information on complaints, the monitoring of cleanliness standards and the various litter campaigns.

(2)                    That a further report is presented in 2020 outlining the full-year impact of operational changes made since April 2019.

(Damian Fisher – 01274 437146)

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “R”) updated Members on the Street Cleansing service including detailed information on complaints and performance in relation to litter and flytipping. The report also provided information on recent major changes including the merger with Parks and Green spaces, service redesign and the recent recruitment of new staff.

The Shipley Area Coordinator was in attendance and accompanied by the Performance Officer, Neighbourhoods and Customer Service. At the direction of the Chair, a report glossary was provided, as follows:

·         Since April 2019 there had been two major changes to the Street Cleansing service. Firstly, the merger of the management structure of Parks & Green Spaces and secondly the redesign of how the service would be operated.

·         On 6 March 2019 this Committee resolved to redesign the Bradford West Cleansing operation including the cleaning of gateways and strategic roads on a daily basis and development of a prescriptive working pattern in estates following completion of the gateway work.  Since June the clean teams had started earlier to clean the essential strategic networks in the constituency and from mid-August the prescriptive work patterns for estates were introduced. The new working patterns had been a major change for all staff and were still bedding in.

·         To coincide with these changes, the Parks operation merged with Street Cleansing. It had been a smooth transition but had been a steep learning curve for the five managers and all had adapted to the changes very successfully.  Area Coordinators and managers were currently looking at how both operations could link together in the future including assessments of all roles and responsibilities, joint depot locations and maximising any joined up working including: -

o   Litter bin emptying, grass cutting, strimming, clearing snickets

o   Winter maintenance

o   Weed control

o   Leaf clearance 

o   Ability to work together with Britain in Bloom and Green Flag awards

o   Economies of scale re purchasing

o   Ward Officer Contacts / WOT Partnerships

A further focal feature of the report was on street cleansing complaints logged with Council Contact. Complaints included litter, leaves, dog fouling and overflowing litter bins amongst other things. In hindsight, it was paramount that totals be looked at in perspective of the time period across an entire ward e.g. how many cases per day across an entire ward. Also to note that since 2012 a growing amount of contact for the cleansing service as made through online contact rather than the traditional telephony channel, in some wards more than 50% of contact came via online reporting and it had meant that many cases were created outside of normal working hours.

The level of complaints reported for Street Cleansing in Bradford West had been relatively stable prior to 2018/19, however there was an increase in 2018/19. The first half of 2019/20 showed there were fewer complaints being reported than in the same period in the previous year.

Following verbal presentation, a question and answer session ensued:

·         What course of action was being addressed to educate communities in keeping local areas clean?

o   Within the scope of reduced resources, there is an increased need to encourage more people and communities to take on more personal responsibility and for our services to support people who volunteer to help;

·         How was the use of IT being taken advantage of to address problem areas?

o   In summer 2018/19 a new opportunity arose to conduct the monitoring in a much swifter fashion utilising technology. The monitoring was called Land Audit Management System (LAMS) and could be used for parks, grounds and cemeteries as well as public highways if so desired.

o   The deployment of an efficient street cleansing service and increased use of technology and data was being used to target problem areas; and,

·         How could respective ward councillors assist the service in addressing cleansing issues in their communities they represent?

o   Within the scope of reduced resources, there is an increased need to encourage more people and communities to take on more personal responsibility and for our services to support people who volunteer to help.

o   Councillors could assist the service by encouraging residents to volunteer and take action themselves;

·         How were local communities be educated on the prevention of fly tipping?

o   Neighbourhood Services ere currently in partnership with the Keep Britain Tidy Group regards hard hitting and sustained anti-fly tipping publicity and marketing campaigns. Campaign themes also entailed, litter and dog fouling campaigns. The programme of campaigns since 2017/2018 had continued to focus on different themes e.g. chewing gum, car litter, householders’ duty of care and City Centre littering with illustrations. The most recent campaign, ‘Don’t Be A Tosser’, was aimed at people who threw their waste out of car windows.  A third of people were not aware that the registered keeper of the vehicle could now be fined up to £100 if rubbish as seen being thrown out of a car window.  The campaign had been designed to send a hard-hitting message to drivers and their passengers that littering from cars as totally unacceptable in terms of behaviour and the damage to the environment and the wildlife.

Resolved –

(1)       That the information contained in Document “R”, particularly the major changes to the service, the information on complaints, the monitoring of cleanliness standards and the various litter campaigns be noted and that the Cleansing teams be thanked for their hard work and  perseverance.

(2)       That a further report be presented in 2020 outlining the full-year impact of operational changes made since April 2019.

ACTION: Strategic Director, Place