Decision details

To implement the Street cleansing Methodology after public consultation

1.    Approved the following changes to the current street cleansing service in Royal Greenwich that were consulted on as part of the “Keeping Greenwich Clean and Tidy” boroughwide public consultation (as summarised in Appendix D):

•        Mobile teams to barrows would improve individual accountability for individual performance.

•        Variable frequency of sweeping according to speed of degradation of public realm by using route optimisation software and local knowledge to identify these areas.

•        The borough would be divided into 8 defined areas (as per Appendix B). Four Operational Supervisors would each be responsible for 2 areas, a town centre and a small mechanical broom. Each area would have a defined number of barrow beats assigned to it and a team leader responsible for collecting sweepers bags, empty litter bins, collect fly-tipping and reporting poor standards of cleansing.

•        2 boroughwide teams operating in the afternoon and evening to address “hotspots” across the borough.

•        Larger capacity vehicles would reduce the current overloading   issue while reducing the amount of vehicle movement, fuel consumption and carbon emissions.

•        Separating street cleansing arisings to maximise recycling would help the service to achieve our recycling targets while reducing waste disposal costs.

•        Improvements in service delivery by ensuring that schedules are completed fully and on time, 7 days a week.  This would require making amendments to staff terms and conditions to ensure weekend and bank holiday schedules have the necessary number of staff working, and therefore this part of the proposal would be subject to the Council’s Organisational Change and Redundancy Policy and consultation with affected staff.

•        The seasonal team would allow the service to carry out seasonal tasks such as leafing without the need for additional agency resources reducing the costs for the department

2.    Approved the following additional enhancements to the proposed street cleansing service, the first of which was developed following feedback from residents, businesses and visitors via the “Keeping Greenwich Clean and Tidy” boroughwide public consultation (as summarised in Appendix D):

2.1.        Changes to town centre hours – with the information gathered from the public consultation we have determined that town centre peak times are between 9am to 6pm; due to this information the town centre shift times will be amended to allow for more staff presence during the peak times.

2.2     The introduction of an Operational Health and Safety Manager post to ensure oversight and maintaining of the health and safety performance of the service on an on-going basis.

3.    Noted that, if approved, the Council’s Organisational Change and Redundancy Policy will need to be applied and affected staff will need to be consulted on the proposals and have the opportunity to be considered for redeployment within the scope of the policy.