Issue - items at meetings

This reports presents recommendations to improve the delivery of Street Scene services, developed following a review of the service during the summer.

Members considered a report which presented recommendations to improve the delivery of the Street Scene service, following a review of the service over the summer.

RESOLVED: (i) That the implementation of the new service, commencing with a pilot zone in December 2006, be approved.

(ii) That the zones be as described in Annex A to the report.

(iii) That the pilot zone be the West Zone.

(iv) That the name for the new service be “York Neighbourhood Pride Service.

(v) That a review of the pilot be presented to the Executive, with the intention that the service be rolled out to other zones by March 2007.

(vi) That the Executive record its thanks to all staff involved in creating the new service.

REASONS: In order to improve the actual and perceived condition and appearance of the City’s streets, housing estates and publicly accessible services, building on the improvements already achieved under the York Pride initiative.

Members considered a report which presented recommendations to improve the delivery of the Street Scene service, following a review of the service over the summer.

The review had been carried out by a team comprising frontline staff, managers and representatives from trades unions and City Centre Management. The team had considered what was good and what was bad about the current service, in the light of current best practice guidance and the recommendations arising from the 2003 Audit Commission’s review of York’s Street Scene services. As a result, a number of key changes to the service were proposed, including:

Managing the new service within 5 zones (North, South, East, West and City), each with its own Customer Champion;
Different methods of cleaning within the zones, e.g. hand sweeping;
Creating a visible ‘brand’ for the service;
Creating a dedicated enforcement team to deter ‘enviro’ crime;
Transferring budgets to the service Directorate to maximise efficiency;
Producing customer standards and performance managing the service;
Working closely with the York Pride Initiatives.

The new Street Service was planned to commence in December 2006, by going ‘live’ with the West Zone. If this pilot proved successful, the next zone would go ‘live’ in March 2007 and the remaining zones in stages thereafter. Members were asked to approve this approach and to agree on a name for the new service. In response to questions raised, Officers confirmed that Street Environment Officers could continue to be known as such (with the strapline “Customer Champion”) and that a detailed rota for street sweeping in the pilot zone would be made available shortly. Members also asked that work on the new service be co-ordinated where possible with the “clean up” strategy for highways related items.