DRR19/022

The Committee considered a report providing an update on the cleaning of Council premises as undertaken by the Council’s appointed Total Facilities Management (TFM) provider Amey.

Darren Nolan of Amey attended the meeting to respond to questions.  In response to a question from the Chairman, Mr Nolan reported that performance on the contract was steady.  It was acknowledged that a few issues arose from time to time, especially in respect of recruitment and retention of cleaning staff however; Amey had been delivering to contract and no financial penalties had been incurred.  In response to a question, Mr Nolan reported that he understood that issues relating to the pest infestation and the drainage in the ladies in toilets in St Blaise had been resolved.

The Chairman highlighted that the broken light in the Council Chamber that he had reported a number of months previously had still not been replaced.  This reflected badly on the Council when members of the public attended meetings and did not look professional.  The Chairman stressed the need to ensure that the Council Chamber light was listed on any reports as a failure as it had taken too long to replace.  Mr Nolan explained that the cost of fixing the Council Chamber lights would fall to LB Bromley and due to the location of the specific light it was costly to secure the equipment that was required to replace the bulb.  In an effort to deliver value for money, there was generally a delay to replacing the bulbs so that more than one light fitting could be replaced at a time.  Members of the Committee expressed concern surrounding this approach due to the poor perception of the Council it gave to any Council visitors.

A Member also raised concerns surrounding the disposal of waste at the Rochester Avenue entrance to the Civic Centre site.  The co-location of the general waste bins and the recycling points presented a bad first impression of the Council.  In addition to this it was a known location for fly-tipping.  In response, the Facilities and Support Client Services Manager reported that discussions were underway in respect of re-locating the recycling point somewhere more appropriate.  It was hoped that this work would be completed within a couple of months.  The Committee noted that the Council had a separate provider for general waste.  Due to the structure of the contract, Amey were not responsible for and therefore not equipped to deal with fly-tipping.

In response to a question, Mr Nolan explained that when the contract was let Amey inherited a set of service level agreements that were already embedded in the Borough.  Generally performance targets were met.  In terms of day-to-day fault resolution, Amey was reliant on people across the Civic Centre site reporting and logging issues as there was not the resourcing in place at the Civic Centre site to proactively identify issues.  It was acknowledged that more may need to be done to make users of the Civic Centre site aware of the need to report issues as well as ensuring that staff were aware of what would be done to resolve issues.

A Member emphasised that many of the problems across the Civic Centre estate went back a long way and were a result of the older buildings in which the offices were generally located.  It was suggested that if any new buildings were commissioned in the future there was a need to ensure that that maintenance of the building was easy and cost effective.

In response to questions concerning the barriers to the Rochester Avenue car park and the toilet cleaning log; Mr Nolan confirmed that there had been some issues with the Rochester Avenue car park barriers.  Engineers had been on site during the day although the reason for the fault remained unclear and it was not yet clear whether the repair was finalised.  It was agreed that further feedback in respect of the car park barriers would be provided to the Committee when it was available.  In terms of the toilet cleaning log, schedules for cleaning how now been placed in every toilet.  Cleaners were now expected to put an initial and time on the schedule when the toilets were cleaned.  It was clear that some staff would require some further training to ensure the schedules were updated appropriately but managers were aware of this.  In response to a question concerning the number of days over the last five years that the community toilets had not been available for use, the Facilities and Support Client Services Manager reported that this information was not available but could be provided following the meeting.

In response to a series of questions from Members, Mr Nolan explained that there were 14 cleaners across the civic centre site who largely worked outside of core business hours.  There was a skeletal crew on site during the operational day.  Amey now had far fewer problems recruiting cleaning staff however it remained difficult to manage unplanned absence.

Turing to the issue of the relocation of the Members mail, the Facilities and Support Client Services Manager confirmed that the main rationale for the relocation of Members mail was the consolidation of the printers.  Members raised issues surrounding out of hours accessibility.  It was suggested that consideration should be given to installing swipe card access at the main front entrance and the door to the Members Room. 

The Chairman and the Committee congratulated Mr Nolan on the excellent work that had been completed by Amey in respect of the redecoration of P11 (The Chairman’s Room).

The Chairman confirmed that he had requested that Amey attended every meeting to provide the Committee with a verbal update until there were identifiable improvements in the overall Service.

RESOLVED that the update be noted and that representatives from Amey attend all future meetings to provide a verbal update until there are identifiable improvements in the Service.