Agenda item

Report ES13001

Report ES13001 provided a review of services within the new street environment services contract. The contract was let on 29^th March 2012 for an initial five year period with an option of a two year extension. To achieve a budget saving the contract incorporated revised specifications for each service area (street cleaning, graffiti removal, cleaning of public conveniences and highway drainage cleaning). Report ES13001 also outlined proposals for further service improvement within budgetary constraints.

The contract was awarded as four lots to the following contractors:

·  Kier Environmental Service, for street cleaning (Lot 1)

·  Community Clean, for graffiti removal (Lot 2)

·  Kier Environmental Services, for cleaning of public conveniences (Lot 3)

·  Veolia, for cleaning of highway drainage assets (Lot 4)

Details of the previous contract and current standards/frequencies were appended to Report ES13001.

For this item the Kier National Director and Kier Contract Manager for L B Bromley attended the meeting.

In discussion, Councillor Grainger felt that street cleaning needed continual review especially where there were over-parked areas. He suggested there were roads cleaned regularly which might not need a regular clean and other more littered roads which needed more cleaning. He felt that better targeting was needed; there were roads in his ward scheduled for fortnightly cleaning which he suggested could be cleaned less frequently and at weekends, perhaps providing an overall lower cost. He felt priority should be given to litter removal rather than detritus given the Borough’s high proportion of green spaces.

Members were advised that the time and frequency of cleaning had been looked at especially weekend cleaning. Reference was made to difficulties with parked vehicles and there were some 330 roads in the borough where this was a problem. There was a cost to clean outside of a normal weekday but this could be balanced with other parts of the contract.

Kier’s National Director referred to providing the best service within the existing budget and there was continuous review. Kier were now some nine months into the contract and improvements would be brought in where necessary. 

Councillor Jefferys suggested less but more effective cleaning in certain parts of his ward. There continued to be a problem with leaves and parked cars. He suggested looking at weekend cleaning and felt that it was necessary to engage with residents - perhaps residents would be prepared to move cars for cleaning purposes. He also enquired whether it was possible to identify when the leaves of particular trees might fall and felt that it was necessary to work smarter. He also asked if there were “hot spots” in certain areas where gullies were likely to be blocked

Members were advised that it was necessary to gather intelligence. Deep cleans could be carried out and temporary traffic restrictions (parking orders) could be made to ensure that vehicles are moved for such cleans. Officers were sharing intelligence with the contractor. Similarly it was also necessary to gather and use intelligence on blocked gullies e.g. in connection with areas prone to flooding. There were means to achieve the borough’s largest ever deep clean programme. Kier’s National Director advised that a new method for removing fallen leaves had been trialled during the autumn but he indicated that this was not as successful as hoped for.

On monitoring performance, reference was made to inspections by supervisors. Councillor Fookes suggested more co-ordination; street bins were overflowing at times and he felt there was a need for more washing and cleaning of streets. He identified a need for gully cleansing in Village Way, Beckenham. 

Report ES13001 referred to the contractor having to co-ordinate scheduled street cleaning where practicable with domestic refuse and recycling collection. The Head of Area Management referred to the capacity to fund additional works from the £200k budget for non-programmed works e.g. deep cleans. There will have been 2.5 months of programmed works by the end of March including the washing of street furniture and cleansing of streets in town centres. Monitoring would also ensure that the contractor followed domestic refuse and recycling collection as part of regular street cleaning. Members were invited to provide any feedback on locations that were felt to be a “hot spot”; additional funding would not be required for this - it would be a matter of bringing the location up to standard.

Responding to an enquiry from Councillor Nicholas Milner, the Head of Area Management indicated that it was possible to report any concern. Reference was also made to inspections with contractors, random officer inspections and making the contractor aware of concerns. Councillor Jefferys also highlighted reports from residents.

Councillor Grainger advocated that street cleansing frequency be based on demand and need. There were a number of residential footways in his ward where litter was not an issue and he suggested cleaning such footways less and allocating the resources to areas needing more cleaning. He suggested that it was necessary to have a wider range of treatments and frequencies.

With the new contract, Members were advised that frequencies had been changed where there was an identified need to do so – officers would welcome any comments from Members on specific problems. The clearing of leaves was due to finish on 7^th January but if necessary work would continue until leaves are collected.

Councillor Jefferys enquired how it might be possible to interact more closely with the inspectors. It was indicated that the new role of Street Environment Inspector was intended to incorporate engagement with the locality e.g. resident associations and shop owners. The engagement had not happened as much as officers would have liked in view of the new contract bedding in.

Councillor Samaris Huntington-Thresher highlighted the cleansing of satellite recycling sites, particularly the recycling site near Chelsfield Station. She suggested that Kier operatives feed in concerns rather than any reliance on reports from residents. Kier’s Contract Manager indicated that there would be more training in this area – operatives reported to Supervisors and information was passed to L B Bromley. Councillor Adams referred to the mini-recycling site at Tesco, Elmers End explaining that it was heavily used and often became littered. It had also been suggested that store packaging had been placed at the site.

Concerning Public Conveniences, Councillor Adams suggested that an internal sign be displayed advising when cleaning was last carried out. Members were advised that cleanliness of Public Conveniences in town centres was monitored.

Concerning residential urban streets/carriageways and a change to mechanical sweeping on a four week basis (with road channels in heavily parked streets cleansed manually at footway sweep levels), the Chairman enquired whether it was felt that this had been a successful change. He also asked for an indication of how inner London boroughs might overcome the problem of heavily parked roads.

The Head of Area Management indicated that there had not been a significant drop in performance with the schedule change. It was necessary to develop intelligence gathering. Other boroughs had different approaches and carried out significant manual cleaning. Mechanical street cleaning presented problems in certain locations and roads with heavy street parking could be treated by approaches such as manual litter picking and deep cleans. Kier’s National Director referred to Westminster and Waltham Forest boroughs and a 24 hour service provided for the latter. Mechanical sweeping was proving more effective on quality.

The Chairman felt that the £200k contingency agreed by the Executive in December 2011 would need to remain in the 2013/14 budget. Street cleaning this year had been affected by a number of unusual weather related issues, particularly the heavy rainfall in 2012. A further report on progress was requested in a further six to nine months before assessing any need for more changes such as whether the £200k contingency provision was necessary. The effect of the contract changes would be clearer when considering the 2014/15 budget. The Chairman suggested further reduced residential frequencies if it were possible to clean streets more thoroughly for example by freeing streets of parked cars for cleaning. He felt that further work was necessary on this.

Councillor Grainger suggested expanding the schedule at Appendix A to Report ES13001 so that the current cleansing standard/frequency could be seen street by street (against the former standard/frequency). The Chairman hoped that when the new contract had “bedded down” it would be possible for the Council website to show information on when a street had last been cleaned and future cleaning work scheduled for the street.

RESOLVED thatthe report be noted and a further report be presented to the PDS Committee in six to nine months.