Agenda item

To consider the final report of the Landscaping Task Group.

(Report attached and presentation to follow)

Councillor Gay Hopkins, as Chair of the Landscaping Task Group, delivered a presentation which highlighted the areas which had been investigated by the Task Group and which had led to it making seven recommendations for the Executive Committee’s consideration.

Detailed information was provided in respect of the following areas:

·                The traditional way of working and the role of operatives within the team including litter pickers and tree surgeons.

·                The transformation work which had taken place and how the team was now working, including taking ownership of workloads.

·                Improvements that had been made in communicating with residents, which include direct face to face contact made by tree surgeons and place operatives.

·                Details of the site visits which Members had carried out together with the interview with the staff based at the depot.

·                The ability for staff to use and develop new skills.

·                Information about the trees intervention programme and the fact that professional tree surgeons employed by the Council had greater discretion in the trees intervention trial to carry out work required on trees.

·                Details about the Place project, a new holistic approach to managing the environment in an area, and how this was being rolled out to other areas from the initial trial location in Winyates.

·                The involvement of residents in the place intervention trial which involved encouraging them to liaise with the operatives on site and to take ownership and to have pride in their particular areas when the work had been carried out.

·                The fact that as part of the intervention trials place operatives and tree surgeons were working on cases that might not previously have been addressed by Council staff in order to both meet the needs of the customer and improve the condition of the local environment.

Following the presentation Members discussed the Place project in further detail and officers confirmed that the aim was for less work schedules to be produced and for the operatives to be pro-active rather than reactive in the work that they carried out.  Members agreed that allowing the operatives to discuss a particular situation directly with the resident would help in cases where the work being requested was not always possible.  This communication was often appreciated by the customer and helped to clarify the reasons why the operatives were delivering work in a particular way.

The Committee thanked Councillor Hopkins and the Task Group Members for the detailed report.

RECOMMENDED that

1)        new Members should be invited to visit teams responsible for tree maintenance, landscaping and cleansing services as part of the Member Induction process to provide them with an opportunity to learn about the work of these teams;

a)    a short briefing outlining the work of the place intervention, tree intervention and landscaping teams should be provided prior to a Council meeting early in the municipal year to provide those Members who are unable to participate in the member induction visit with an opportunity to learn about the work of these teams;

2)        a contact list of key senior and operational Officers, containing the telephone and email details together with the basic information about the Officers’ responsibilities, should be provided for the consideration of Members;

3)        Members should be provided with updates on progress made addressing landscaping issues that they have referred to Officers at the request of residents including at the point of resolution;

4)        data relating to landscaping cases reported for each area be provided for Members’ consideration on an annual basis.  Every Member should receive data for the areas they cover;

5)        one of the Environmental Services Teams’ performance measures should be to monitor the number of landscape cases that take longer than six months to resolve.  The information obtained through this monitoring process should be reported in the strategic measures for consideration of Senior Officers and elected Members;

6)        Officers should undertake a feasibility study, risk assessment and cost benefit analysis to assess the potential for the Council to bulk plant trees in Council open spaces and other appropriate locations.  This feasibility study should take into account the following matters:

(a)   the legal implications, if any, of this action;

(b)   the financial costs involved in planting and maintaining these plants;

(c)   the availability of grants from the government and other sources to help pay for bulk planting in the Borough;

(d)   demand within the market;

(e)   where bulk planting would take place in the Borough;

(f)     the size of the plots available for bulk planting;

(g)   the implications for the Council’s Planning Department in relation to the Local Plan;

(h)   the potential revenue that could be accrued by the Council; and

7)        Officers should investigate how to dispose of logs in a way that would maximise income for the Council.  Part of this investigation should involve a risk assessment.  Any revenue from these sales should be reinvested in landscaping services.