Agenda item

[Report of the interim Director for Commercial and Operations. To be introduced by the Leader of the Council].

Cabinet to consider the Scrutiny on Street Sweeping and agree the cabinet response to the recommendations.

Councillor Gallagher introduced the Scrutiny review on Street Sweeping and thanked the Scrutiny Panel and Scrutiny Officer for their work on the review. The instigation of the review was following concern about the reduction in residential street sweeping from twice a week to once a week, agreed via a Cabinet Member signing in 2016.

There was concern that this was leading to a deterioration in standards and unbalanced street cleanliness across the borough. A range of evidence was considered by the Panel and the overarching recommendation was to switch from a uniformed service across the borough to a flexible service which took account of need and enabled an outcomes based service.

Cllr Gallagher was pleased that this recommendation was ‘partially agreed’ and understood more work was needed on agreeing the specific actions in relation to this recommendation. This had been left to officers, with specific expertise, to provide the technical detail on the actions to be completed.

The Cabinet Member for Environment welcomed the report and thanked the Panel for their work. Cuts to the budget had meant difficult choices for the Council but cleanliness was important for residents and the Council would still need to respond to these concerns.

The Cabinet Member expressed that the Scrutiny review provided useful evidence of approaches to street sweeping from different authorities and there were lessons to be learned. Given the budget constraints, the Cabinet response recognised that there was more work to be completed on examining the implications of the recommendations.

In relation to recommendation 1, the overarching recommendation outlined by Cllr Gallagher on moving to a flexible service, there would be further detailed modelling and a report brought back to Cabinet in due course

In response to recommendation 2, that further engagement work be undertaken with residents to develop additional means for them to provide feedback on cleanliness and encourage them to report issues in their area, the Cabinet Member for Environment proposed that Cabinet agree to amend this from ‘Not agreed’ to “Partially agreed’.

The Cabinet Member expressed that, in principle, the Council wanted to maximise resident engagement and input. Officers would review the existing means of engagement to make sure they were effective. There was a limited communications budget within the overall integrated waste contract for communications. This was largely focussed on ensuring residents knew how to dispose of their waste correctly in turn increasing the recycling rate in order to reduce disposal costs. Officers would also look at means for feedback to Veolia and the Council on the performance of the contract, via formal enquiries and complaints procedures, the OurHaringey app, and through social media.

In relation to the final recommendation on extending the use of mechanical sweepers, this would be looked at in conjunction with the modelling of different options.

In response to Cllr Ejiofor’s question on suggestions by the Scrutiny Panel to improve communication on street sweeping, Cllr Gallagher explained that this arose as a result of considering Camden’s experience of a flexible street sweeping schedule. If Haringey adopted a similar schedule, there needed to be a greater level of communication to accompany an adjustment.

Cabinet agreed the amendment of the response to recommendation 2, as outlined above by Councillor Mitchell and,

RESOLVED:

1. To note the Scrutiny Review into Street Sweeping set out in the Appendix 2.

2. Cabinet agree the response to the recommendations of the review set out in the Appendix 1.