Agenda item

A presentation by Jane Glazebrook on behalf of StreetCare

The Group Manager, Business and Service Support, on behalf of the Head of StreetCare, introduced this presentation.  She informed Members about the range of services which fell under the umbrella of StreetCare.  As well as Highways and Traffic and parking Control, StreetCare was also responsible for Environmental maintenance and Waste Services.

She explained that there were various routes in which members of the public could engage with StreetCare about service provision including the Corporate Complaints process, the Local Government Ombudsman and through Members and MPs.  She identified six complaint themes:

• Dissatisfaction with the level of service or the quality of its delivery
• Disagreement with a decision
• Dissatisfaction with Council policy
• Staff behaviour or
• Used (erroneously) as a route to try and appeal a parking penalty charge notice.

For the year December 2013 to November 2014, StreetCare had received 493 complaints which were dealt with at Stage One.  The Committee was shown that these fell in almost predictable patterns.  For example: Concerning street trees, the complaints would peak in late autumn when leaves fell and concerning the road surface (pot-holes) that peaked in January.  Waste and recycling tended to peak in August (usually the hottest month and people on holiday/school holidays) whilst for traffic and parking, there was no discernible pattern.

Around 10% of Stage One complaints went to Stage Two in StreetCare.  Of the 493, 50 were escalated.  This was slightly higher than the service would like, but consistent with Council targets.  Unfortunately the service’s performance in resolving complaints within 10 working days only reached the Corporate target of 90% once (in March 2014) when it was 97%.

Concerning Member and MP enquiries, the Committee was informed that StreetCare received more than any other service area which included enquiries about non-Council related issues as well.  For the nine months between April and December 2014, the chart showed that – unsurprisingly – the highest number of enquiries concerned highways – though environmental maintenance came a close second.  To illustrate the range of concerns raised by Members and members of the public, the Group Manager showed a series of slides illustrating abandoned vehicles, parking enforcement and fly-tipping – something which was not only unsightly and potentially dangerous, but cost the Council a good deal to clear.  She did add that staff searched through fly-tipped refuse to see if they could find any clues to where it came from and if names and addresses were found the service made a point of pursuing those people to recover the cost of clearing it from the public areas and prosecuting offenders.  Members were reminded that this only applied to public property, not private land.  Anything tipped there was the landowner’s problem – though the service would assist wherever it could.

The final element of the presentation was about compliments.  The Group Manager explained that there were examples of the public showing their appreciation.  For example: staff “going the extra mile” – mostly for members of the street cleansing team for doing extra work to ensure areas not normally on their round, were cleaned.  There was thanks for resolving an issue quickly and there was positive feed-back for staff attitude and for helpfulness, particularly in difficult situations.

The Committee thanked the Group Manager, Business and Service Support for her presentation and noted the entertaining and informative manner in which she had delivered it.