Agenda item

An interview with Jennifer Shepherd, Waste and Street Scene Manager, Environmental Services.

Jennifer Shepherd, Waste and Street Scene Manager, and Gary Stevenson, Shared Head of Environment and Street Scene were invited to speak on this item.

Mrs Shepherd gave a presentation to the committee covering the following points:

·  The aims of the new street cleansing service were:

o  Greater transparency;

o  A service that reflected the needs of the borough;

o  Increased attention to detail; and

o  Reducing costs from 2016.

·  The review compared different ways of delivering the street cleansing service, including private sector and in house teams and mechanical and manual methods;

·  Every street in the borough was assessed to determine its cleansing needs;

·  A review of productivity levels in the cleansing teams showed lower productivity than was expected. This was not down to the work of the cleansing teams but due to the systems and structures being used. For example, the splitting of the borough into two zones had hindered flexibility.

·  The review found the service relied on a high levels of overtime to deliver core functions.

In response to this review, the following changes were being implemented, in consultation with the workforce:

·  More manual cleansing, instead of mechanised cleansing. Manual cleansing was better for achieving greater attention to detail.

·  Moving from area based cleansing to team based cleansing.

·  Formation of a ‘hit squad’ to cleanse areas that required urgent attention. This team could be sent out via an app, and members of the public could ‘tag’ areas online that needed urgent attention.

In response to a question from the committee, Mrs Shepherd stated the last review of street cleansing took place in 2010. This review led to the area based cleansing system in place at this time.

The committee were interested to know why shopping areas seemed to receive a lot of attention from cleansing teams, as this ought to be the responsibility of shops. Mrs Shepherd responded that the approaches to shopping areas were high footfall areas, where high levels of waste gathered.

The committee asked Mrs Shepherd for a copy of the cleansing schedule. Mrs Shepherd explained this not available yet, as workforce engagement had not yet taken place on the new proposals. It was important to engage with staff as they had the expert knowledge on what would work well on the ground. Once the new schedule had been finalised, it would be made publicly available on the internet.

The committee enquired whether the proposals would lead to an increase in the number of staff employed on cleansing. Mrs Shepherd informed the committee that the proposals within the review were focused on using existing resources better, rather than taking on new staff. Mrs Shepherd made it very clear that cleansing staff were committed to the job and hard working, however the systems in place could make them inefficient. For example, through long journey times between jobs.

A member of the committee asked what delegation was given to parishes for cleansing in their areas. Mrs Shepherd responded that some work was carried out in collaboration with larger parishes, however the cost of the equipment required meant it was not an option for all parishes.

Mrs Shepherd informed the committee that the cleansing teams had been equipped with a handheld mobile working device. The new cleansing system would be introduced alongside a new app. This app would allow the public to report areas requiring attention, and a cleansing team could be directed there via their handheld device. The app would also lead to less duplication as residents would be able to see reports that had already been made. In addition, the app would be sophisticated enough to identify who was responsible for each piece of land and forward a request to the appropriate agency. For example if a fly tip was reported on land belonging to Golding Homes, Golding Homes would be notified directly. The app had the added benefit of helping enforcement to map fly tipping hotspots.

RESOLVED: That

1)  The Waste and Street Scene Manager bring an update report on the new street cleansing service to the appropriate committee in September 2015, once the new service was up and running.

2)  The Waste and Street Scene Manager make available to all members the cleansing schedule for their area, once it has been finalised in consultation with the workforce.