Agenda item

A report of the Assistant Director Environmental Services (Street Scene) to consider the current and prospective requirements of the contract for street sweeping services in Haringey – including integration of Haringey Council’s performance indicators into the contract specification and to link the requirements of BV199 to the contract client side requirements.

Members considered a report of the Assistant Director of Environmental Services (Street Scene) to consider the current and prospective requirements of the contract for street sweeping services in Haringey.    

Catalogue pictures of the various models of litter bins available for the Council to use were distributed to Members. 

It was asked what the procedure is for the replacement of missing bins (e.g. if they have been destroyed).  Officers undertook to find out and provide the Review with this. 

The report considered the current and prospective requirements of the contract for street sweeping services in Haringey – including integration of Haringey Council’s performance indicators into the contract specification. To link the requirements of BV199 to the contract client side requirements.

Street cleaning performance was discussed.  Current performance based on the 2004 Residents Survey is 42% (“Amber”), outlined in Appendix A of the report.  This is the highest it has been since measurements of this indicator began. 

Residents’ satisfaction monitoring of the ACCORD contract is however conducted by MORI in a resident’s poll.  It was enquired whether MORI or the Residents Survey (or both) is the best way to measure the residents satisfaction element of performance of street cleaning.  This query will be forwarded to the Executive Member for Community Involvement. 

The Residents Survey is carried out annually, the MORI survey is carried out every 3 years against the BV89 performance indicator.  The MORI survey is they key residents satisfaction survey that contributes to Haringey Council’s CPA score.  The Housing Services directorate also commission a survey carried out by MRUK specifically to look at residents’ satisfaction on housing estates. 

Appendix B of the report outlines performance of zone 1 land that is of an acceptable standard of cleanliness.  Haringey Council and ACCORD carry out their own performance monitoring and work together to find improvement in a partnership approach, rather than a relationship with a division between delivery and audit. This self monitoring arrangement has some benefits such as picking up on dirty streets and instigating action more quickly.  Members agreed that a partnership approach seems to work best in this context.  If ACCORD fall below a minimum performance standard on a particular street Haringey Council can issue a conformance notice.  As a last resort Haringey Council can “fine” the contractor. 

Performance based on Council monitoring is 95.8% and on ACCORD monitoring is 98.2%.  It was commented that this gives the impression that performance is consistently very high and that there is only marginal room for improvement.  This is because the monitoring graph shows performance grades A and B together.  

Grades A/B = Generally acceptable or high

Grades C/D = Below acceptable or high

It was agreed that analysis of performance needs to be more detailed and performance against grades A and B needs to be refined. 

The performance monitoring here is based on the Code of Practice between ACCORD and the Council and not on the BV199 standard.  Monitoring against BV199 would require more detailed monitoring.  Members agreed that it should be recommended that in the future performance monitoring reflects the detail of the BV199 standard. 

The current contract for delivery of street sweeping services with Haringey Accord Ltd is until December 2009.  Members agreed that it should be recommended that the Council negotiate with ACCORD to work towards the BV199 performance indicator (the performance indicator that Haringey Council is measured against).  This may incorporate areas of work that ACCORD are not currently responsible for, e.g. removal of illegal flyposting, but it may be more efficient for ACCORD to be responsible for delivery of all council targets against the BV199 standard.

Members noted the cost of the street cleaning element of the ACCORD contract. 

RECOMMENDED:

That the Waste Management Service seek to negotiate with Haringey Accord Ltd to discontinue current performance indicators and targets based on the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse and replace these with new performance indicators and targets based on BVPI 199a.

That the targets negotiated be percentage-based as well as comparison-based.

That the Scrutiny Panel supports the bids submitted by Streetscene for:

·        Dedicated detritus removal team.

·        Saturday night refuse collection and street sweeping service.

·        Borough-wide timed collections on main roads.

That Haringey Council should negotiate with Haringey Accord Ltd. to move toward a holistic delivery of council street cleanliness performance targets under BV199.