Agenda item

(Presentation from the Operations Manager)

The Chair welcomed the Portfolio Holder for Environmental Sustainability, Recycling and Waste, the Assistant Director for Environment, Culture and Wellbeing and the Deputy Operations Manager, Street Scene, to provide a presentation around the maintenance of estates and open spaces withing the borough.

The Assistant Director introduced the presentation highlighting the following –

Ø  The team cover a range of services in addition to overseeing parks and open spaces as highlighted in the Powerpoint.

Ø  The team is made up of 61 members of staff, and last year a three person react team was established to respond to enquiries received on a daily basis to avoid taking other Officers off planned maintenance jobs.

Ø  The team work with the Assistant Director, Growth and Regeneration to look at the allocation of 106 monies.

Ø  A breakdown of how much is received from the Housing Revenue Account and how this is distributed was included as requested by the Committee.

Ø  Staffing was highlighted as a service risk (noting the team are currently close to a full team with a tree officer and that they are working on building resilience through multi-skilling within the team). Utilising technology was also identified, and they were looking at how they could utilise technology to improve efficiencies.

Ø  Reporting routes were highlights and how these allow the team to track responses.

Ø  Last year the team received 3224 service requests in addition to their day-to-day tasks.

Ø  With regards to tree maintenance, it was confirmed that where there were trees that were dead, dying, diseased these would be removed and those likely to cause damage would be assessed. Some trees are owned by the County and some are covered by TPO’s which can impact what work is done and how quickly. Where there is damage caused by weather the Council will react irrelevant of whose responsibility it is.

The Committee made the following comments/observations and asked the following questions:

1. Thanks to the Officers for providing some really useful context to how issues with tree are managed.
2. Whether there are any timescales for responding to reports around issues with trees?

Officers confirmed that there are no timescales as it is very difficult to plan as every tree is different and workloads can change with one storm however that dead/dying/diseased or likely to cause damage are a priority and are dealt with as soon as they can. It was highlighted that tree works can only be carried out by someone qualified.

3. Members highlighted issues with trees particularly close to footpaths and that they have problems with getting the County Council to pick these up.

Offices acknowledged this and confirmed that trees on major trunk routes, major footpaths and interlinking footpaths are mainly County trees however there is crossover on places close to roads/footpaths and these need to be checked, however if they are touch houses or low hanging the Council will go out and deal with them.

Officers signposted Members to where jobs can be reported to Staffordshire County Council confirming that there are two different tree departments, highways and opens spaces.

Officers confirmed that in circumstances where tree roots were damaging footpaths, if the Council or SCC were going to dig out roots that would kill or damage the tree then the tree would be removed, however a healthy tree would not be removed if the footpath could be repaired without damaging the tree.

Where trees may be overhanging properties common law states that the Council does not need to prevent their trees, shrubs or bushes from growing into somebodies’ property, they are also not allowed to enter private property to cut the trees, however the person whose property it is, is able to cut trees back (permission would be required where there is a TPO in place). If climbing was required to carry out the work, then this would be done by the Council.

The Committee acknowledged that this area was not straight forward.

4. How Communications were used to report to residents how maintenance work was carried out?

Officers confirmed that there were starting the process of being more proactive on social media to show before and after works, and this could be used to remind residents how to report issues. It was highlighted that they are looking at putting together a comprehensive frequently asked questions for residents. Members acknowledged that this is a good idea but should be made more accessible than just on the internet.

Officers confirmed that they were engaging with the tenant’s consultative group to have this in their newsletter and could also look to have hard copies at engagement points.

5. Clarification around systems used to identify information relating to trees and whether there was a centralised system.

It was confirmed that work was being done on streamlining data.

6. Whether more use of apprentices was being considered as this has proven successful?

It was confirmed that they have seen apprentices move successfully into regular employment.

7. The Committee highlighted that educating residents on what they were responsible for and what County were responsible for was important and a recommendation to Cabinet was proposed to look at how the Council inform the public of the services that the Council, SCC and Highways are responsible for.

Members also noted that it was important that children were educated on what the Council do and how much it costs them to pick up litter and what else that money could be spent on (I.e. play parks) to encourage them not to drop litter.

The Committee also acknowledged that Members also had a responsibility to inform residents.

8. Whether certain areas were a priority over other in terms of maintenance on open spaces?

Officers confirmed that there was not. Teams try to work effectively to move across the borough to complete cyclical maintenance for areas such as grass cutting and trimming hedges and shrubs however this can be disrupted by factors such as bird nesting season and the weather, an example was given of a very wet season where the usual mowing machine was unable to cope with the long wet grass so there was a delay due to needing to bring in other equipment.

9. Clarification around the collection of green waste such as grass cuttings and if they could collect green waste collected by residents after storms.

It was confirmed that they do not collect grass cuttings, these would not be left on footpaths but if there was an issue then they can use a sweeper to move them.

It was confirmed that they could not collect from private land, but they could if it was Council land/green spaces.

10. Whether there were issues with staffing?

Officers confirmed that they were in a much better position staffing wise however if more maintenance was required that more staff/equipment would be required.

The Chair highlighted that following a visit to the depot it was discussed that a bank cutting machine would help the team and recommendation was proposed for Cabinet to investigate this.

11. Whether the Council and their suppliers use peat-free compost?

Officers confirmed that as part of their Nature Declaration they use peat-free compost when replenishing beds and are also working towards greater sustainability when planting.

12. Whether advertisements on roundabouts could be taken down where they are not currently providing an income?

Officers confirmed that they could take this away and check.

13. The Committee acknowledged the vast variety of important work that Street Scene carry out.

Councillor N Statham left the meeting at 19:38.