ENVIRONMENT OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

8SEPTEMBER 2011

POOLE’S STREET CLEANSING SERVICES PROVISION & PERFORMANCE

REPORT OF THE HEAD OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND CONSUMER PROTECTION SERVICES

  1. PURPOSE

1.1To respond to the Motion presented to Council on 1 March 2011(details below) with regard to Poole’s Street Cleansing Service, with particular reference to annual leaf fall and weed treatment programmes,as requested by the Chairman of the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

“In view of the high incidence of leaves on pavements and roadside gutters in certain parts of the Borough, and the consequential impact this has on drainage of surface water – flooding results from blocked drains, the increased risk for elderly residents having to walk on slippery surfaces and the creation of a food base which promotes healthy weed growth, this Council is requested to review its road sweeping policy with a view to ensuring that areas at risk, such as Broadstone, are given the highest priority”.

Signed: Councillors Brooke, Meachin, Maiden, Eades, Godfrey, Matthews, Clements, Mrs Moore and Miss Wilson.

  1. DECISION REQUIRED

2.1That Members note the Report’s content.

  1. BACKFROUND INFORMATION

3.1 Environmental and Consumer Protection Services (E&CPS) iscommitted to improvingthe quality of life for all residents - and this is intrinsically linked to the quality of the local environment.The Council’s Cleansing Services are designed to reflect TheCode of Practice on Litter and Refuse, first published in 1991 and revised in November 2006, which sets out standards of environmental cleanliness for local authorities and other duty bodies to meet their obligations under Section 89 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

3.2 Leaf clearance is a non statutory service and is currently provided as part of the Council’s normal schedules for street cleansing. Typically this type of operation takes priority between November and January, the periods of heaviest leaf fall. The exact timing varies according to weather conditions.

3.3 The Council’s current Street Cleansing Service is designed to remove litter and detritus from streets according to need. The frequencies are set to remove the detritus in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act (1990) - Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse, which governs how long an authority has to clean a road once its cleanliness has fallen below standard.

3.4 Leaf fall and weeds are not categorised as litter and there is no legal requirement to remove them until they lose their form and become detritus. The Borough of Poole,however,as the Highways Authority, has the Statutory Responsibility to maintain the highway in a safe condition. This could in specific incidences include the removal of leaves from footpaths and roads if they are deemed significant enough to represent a real safety hazard.

3.5 If the leaves are ultimately not removed they will gradually decompose and form detritus, usually found in road channels and against ‘back lines’ on footpaths, i.e. against walls, fences and under hedges.

  1. RESOURCE & SERVICE BUDGET

4.1 The E&CPS Waste Operations Cleansing Services budget for 2011/12 is £1.628 million, of that the Street Sweeping & Weed Treatment Cleansing Services accounts for approximately £569,211 and is resourced as below to provide cover 7 days a week.

5x Pedestrian sweepers

3x Large mechanical sweepers

1x mechanical scrubber

1x Ford Ranger

8x Non LGV Drivers (inc. 1 for weekend high street)

3x LGV Drivers

2x General Operative (inc. 1 for weekend highstreet)

Further resource is drawn from other Cleansing Services appropriate to demand and availability to address seasonal requirements.

  1. SERVICES PROVIDED (relating to leaf fall and weed growth)

Street and Open Space Cleansing

5.1 As detailed in Section 2 above, E&CPS programme its operations in consideration of the Code of Practice for Litter and Refuse. Schedules indicate the frequency a road should be inspected by Cleansing Teams and if upon inspection it is found to have fallen below an acceptable standard, cleansing will be undertaken to restore it to a Grade B. The Service applies to all residential roads, main roads, town centres,public open spaces and beach promenade, with the exception of Poole Park and Upton Country Park, which are managed through a separate contract.

5.2 Cleansing Services operate Tuesday – Saturday 06:30 – 22:00 and Sunday & Monday 06:30 – 16:15 throughout the year.

5.3 During leaf fall season these Schedules are adjusted as much as operationally possible to prioritise and increase the frequency of cleansing to areas that historically experience heavy leaf fall these include:

Canford Magna
Broadstone
Creekmoor
Canford Cliffs
Branksome Park

These areasare neither exclusive nor exhaustive and other locations are added as they are affected. This prioritisation has to be balanced against the statutory requirement to maintain cleansing throughout the Borough affected by accumulations of litterand whilst operating within allocated budgets.

5.4 The impact and manageability of leaf fall varies each year depending upon weather conditions i.e. an extended period of fair weather can result in a prolonged but more operationally manageable period of leaf fall clearance.Whereas a sudden period of cold/windy weather can lead to large volumes of leaf fall throughout the Borough in a short period of time making it extremely challenging for cleansing teams to respond to demand from many areas within the Borough at the same time.

Weed Treatment

5.5 E&CPS undertake Weed treatment (target product application and manual/mechanical hoeing)of approximately 300 miles of adopted public roads and footpaths plus open space footpaths.

5.6 This figure is for direct routing only and does not take into consideration pathways. Considering one operative working a road with associated pavements – this requires the operative to walk the same road 4 times i.e. back edge and front edge on both sides. Therefore could be up to 1232 miles that need to be treated.

5.7 Weed control treatments available to local authoritiesnow rely exclusively on active ingredients, which are only effective against weeds present at the time of application. This inevitably means that weeds must be allowed to grow/have foliage before they can be effectively treated.

5.8 E&CPS commence annual weed treatment from approximately March (dependant upon weather conditions).Treatment commences on high usage and very visible areas first and then works back on a sliding scale to least used places toward the end of the plan. For example main roads around the Borough are targeted first as these are seen by the most people and therefore have the biggest impact. Commercial areas and main residential roads follow, so on and so forth.

  1. PERFORMANCE

Street and Open Space Cleansing

6.1 Prior to 2007/08 the National Indicator BVPI 199 applied the indicator measured two aspects of street cleanliness – litter and detritus (similar to current NI 195) performance was as follows: (percentage refers to failure rate)

03/0425%(First year BPVI 199 was introduced)

04/0529%

05/0622%

06/0713%

07/0812% (National indicator 195 introduced replacing BVPI 199)

08/0910%

09/1012%

10/118%

11/12 6.5% (Quarter 1)

For a more detailed breakdown to compare performance over the last 3 years these combined figures break down as follows (again percentage refers to failure rate):

Year / Litter / Detritus
2008/09 / 9 / 12
2009/10 / 10 / 15
2010/11 / 5 / 11
2011/12 * first inspection results only / 4 / 9

Weed Treatment requests/complaints

6.2 The number of public requests/complaints relating to weeds is as follows:

Year / Total No of requests/complaints / No of complaints as at 1st Aug
2008/09 / 173 / 83
2009/10 / 286 / 143
2010/11 / 176 / 116
2011/12 to date / N/A / 104
  1. SERVICE CHANGES/IMPROVEMENTS

7.1 As with all E&CPS services we seek to continually review our Service Delivery and Performance, to ensure we provide the most efficient and effective service achievable within allocated budgets.

7.2 Areas highlighted for action and/or further evaluation include:

  • Replacement of current mechanical sweeper fleet as per Council Fleet Replacement Programme. A number of vehicles have been demonstrated and evaluated by operatives.
  • Consideration and evaluation of the introduction of mechanised weed treatment application via new mechanical sweeper fleet.
  • Increase the number of trained weed treatment operatives within the existing cleansing team to increase service flexibility
  • Review of existing cleansing schedules, with consideration of NI 195 cleansing performance data , service request and complaints data, and sweeper operator knowledge
  • Evaluation of Transportation Services data re known flood risk areas to further prioritise areas for leaf fall clearance.
  • Investigate feasibility of increasing number of temporary waste transfer sites across the borough (skips for the transportation of collected street litter/leaf fall arisings) to reduce sweeper down time associated with travel to and from tipping. Subject to Environment Agency approval and licensing.
  • Investigation into feasibility of adaption of a number of cleansing vehicle fleet to support leaf sucking operations
  • Increase allocation of leaf blowers to manual cleansing operatives
  • Increasing use of Dorset Probation Service to support cleansing activities across the Borough.
  • Engagement, support and empowerment to encourage local community action ‘Big Society’ working with residents to support Council efforts by e.g. maintaining and removing weeds from boundary walls acting responsibility by not sweeping leaves from private driveways onto the highway/footpaths.
  1. RECOMMENDATIONS

8.1 That Members note the Report and support the ongoing work identified to further improve services and local environment.

Shaun Robson

Head of Service

Environmental & Consumer Protection Services

Contact Officer

Kate Langdown

Waste & Fleet Services Team Manager

Tel:261704

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