Prepared by Ellen Struthers, LRS Twinning and Mentoring

LRS: Twinning and Mentoring proposal for London Councils

Twinning and Mentoring 2011: Cost efficiency in street cleansing summary report

Prepared by Ellen Struthers, LRS Consultancy Prepared for Alice Ellison, London Councils Date: 20 April 2011

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Report title:

Twinning and mentoring 2011: Cost efficiency in street

cleansing

Date: First draft 22 March 2011. Final draft 20 April.

Prepared by: Ellen Struthers

Title: Principal Consultant, LRS Consultancy

Contact details:

Tel:

Email:

1 Quality Court, Chancery Lane, WC2A 1HR

020 7061 6359

[email protected]

Client Details:

Name:

Title:

Contact details:

Tel:

Contact details:

London Councils

Alice Ellison

Policy & Project Manager – Environment & Transport

59½ Southwark Street, London SE1 0AL

020 7934 9829

[email protected]

mailto:ellen.struthers@lrsconsultancy

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Contents

1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 4

1.1 Challenges, advice and work undertaken ............................................................... 5

1.2 Feedback from attendees on actions they would take following the session ......................... 6

2. Summary of presentations and discussions ............................................................ 7

2.1 Presentation by TOR2: A joint venture approach to street cleansing .................................. 7

2.2 Question and answer session with TOR2 .............................................................. 10

2.3 Presentation by Southwark Council: Regenerating ‘the Cut’ .......................................... 11

2.4 Presentation by Tower Hamlets Council: Back to basics contract management and localisation ... 15

2.5 Presentation by Waltham Forest Council: The impact of monitoring methodology ................. 16

2.6 Question and answer session for Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest Councils ....... 22

2.7 Background to cleansing in Westminster .............................................................. 22

2.8 Methods of cleansing in Westminster ................................................................. 26

2.9 Question and answer session with Westminster Council ............................................. 33

3. Group activities: ........................................................................................ 33

3.1 Identifying and addressing factors that influence cost and cleanliness standards ................... 33

4. Considerations .......................................................................................... 35

5. Further information .................................................................................... 38

6. Appendices ............................................................................................. 38

6.1 Summary of challenges, advice, and work undertaken by attendees ................................ 38

6.2 Summary of low priority contributors to the cost and standard of street cleanliness ............... 40

6.3 Group activity outcomes: Identifying and addressing factors that influence cost and cleanliness standards ............................................................................................... 42

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1. Introduction

The Twinning and Mentoring (T&M) programme was launched in 2005 by Government Office for London as

a mechanism for local authorities in London to share their knowledge and experiences in order to improve

overall recycling performance. The scheme was launched as a cluster group format which used a mixture

of presentations and facilitated discussions to encourage local authority colleagues to share information.

In 2007 LRS Consultancy1 designed and delivered eight cluster group meetings as part of the T&M

programme, on behalf of London Councils. Two sessions were run on each of the following topics:

Organics

Estates and flats above shops

Trade waste and recycling

Enforcement to encourage recycling and waste minimisation

During 2011, the London Councils Officers Advisory Panel on Waste2 highlighted the need for a further

session focused on improving performance and cost efficiencies in street cleansing. In response to this,

London Councils agreed to fund a new T&M session and procured LRS Consultancy to design and deliver it.

The purpose of the session was to identify and disseminate good and best practice on efficient street

cleansing regimes that will help boroughs achieve efficiencies in times of restricted budgets whilst

maintaining or improving service standards.

The session ran on the 16 March 2011 and was attended by 16 officers representing 14 London boroughs.

The objective of the session was to: provide attendees with an opportunity to share their experiences of

service delivery; hear from speakers that had launched new initiatives; and to view operations and

equipment during a site visit. The agenda for the meeting included:

A presentation from TOR23 with question and answer session

A group activity to identify factors that influence cost and cleanliness standards

Presentations from Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest Councils

A presentation from Westminster City Council with an introduction to the site tour

1 Previously London Remade Solutions, a subsidiary of London Remade

2 In 2006 London Councils set up an advisory panel on waste to focus discussion on specific and pertinent matters relating to waste

services in London. The current membership is selected out of borough officers focussing on waste and cleansing with nominations invited from the Association of London Cleansing Officers (ALCO). 3 A joint venture company formed by Torbay Council and May Gurney.

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A site tour to view equipment in operation in Westminster

This report provides a summary of the discussions from the day. Since the discussions were run under the

Chatham House Rule4 (to encourage open and honest discussion) the contributions are not attributed to

any attendee or local authority.

1.1 Challenges, advice and work undertaken

As part of the introductions to the day and registration process attendees were asked to summarise: the

challenges they faced with street cleansing; advice for other local authorities; and what work they had

undertaken to date to reduce costs or improve cleanliness standards. Some of the points made are

summarised below with a full list provided in Appendix 6.1.

Challenges

Budget reductions, but with requirement to keep standards high

A high proportion of businesses and associated daily migrant population are challenging for street

cleansing.

Cleansing channels properly enabling clearance of deposits in heavily parked areas.

Advice

Identify areas where sweeping frequencies can be reduced e.g. residential streets

Increase self-reliance in communities coupled with a stronger emphasis on enforcement

Understand the needs of the residents, be realistic about what can be achieved and look for

synergies with internal and external partners.

Where possible build in as much flexibility into the contract specification as practicable

Ensure that you get a contract that is workable and that you are getting the resources required to

carry out the work effectively

Keep an open mind and look for change opportunities

Benchmark your service, learn from others and share best practice

Communicating the costs of littering and flytipping is important

Understand how to monitor effectively to improve standards

4 The Chatham House Rule is a rule that governs the confidentiality of the source of information received at a meeting. The rule

originated in June 1927 at what is now best known as Chatham House (formerly as the Royal Institute of International Affairs). The rule states that: "When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed”. The rule is invoked at meetings to encourage openness and sharing of information and allows people to speak as individuals, and to express views that may not be those of their organisations.

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Work undertaken to reduce costs or improve standards

Reviews of contract specifications and policies.

Re-letting of contracts has included: hybrid (input and output based) contracts; a full breakdown of

costs to inform decision making on costs; and a performance based bonus for the contractor.

Options to reduce spend as part of new contracts include: self-monitoring by the contractor; a

partnership approach with the contractor; and changes to IT systems.

Campaigns to increase awareness of environmental issues such as littering, fly-tipping, dog fouling

and fly posting and change behaviour.

Changes to sweeping frequencies and re-zoning of streets to ensure that resources are deployed to

the areas of greatest need.

Working with partners internally and externally to improve environment quality e.g. enforcement

teams, cleansing, highways and anti-social behaviour departments and social housing providers.

1.2 Feedback from attendees on actions they would take following the session

At the end of the session, attendees were asked for feedback on actions they would take following the

session. This feedback is set out in the bullet points below.

Visit colleagues

Scope synergies

Look at time-banding and monitoring

Joint venture

Shift optimisation

Explore use of reverse stencil to indicate cleaning activities

Involve residents in NI195 inspections

Public consultation on costed options for cleansing cuts

Waste markers and time bands

Stripping back fleet to levels at start of contract

Set aside a budget for training on NI195

Link between reducing flytipping and NI 191 scores

Mapping wetspots for public conveniences and street urination

Look at consultation with businesses and residents within areas of LEQ concern

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2. Summary of presentations and discussions

Summarised below are the key outcomes of the presentations and activities that were undertaken as part

of the session. Full presentations by each of the speakers can be provided on request.

2.1 Presentation by TOR2: A joint venture approach to street cleansing

Aims and benefits

Torbay Council provides services to visitors and residents of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham. The

local authority area contains 130,000 residents and 60,000 dwellings. Beyond perceptions of

Torbay as a tourist destination there are social and economic issues that make it similar in some

respects to London; Torbay has some deprived areas, 50% of the population is retired and

therefore living on lower incomes and getting private investment into the area is challenging with

associated unemployment problems

TOR2 is a joint venture waste and asset management company formed by Torbay Council and May

Gurney

The Council decided on the joint venture approach for waste and recycling services (including street

cleansing) in order to generate capital investment into its aging vehicle fleet, saving money and

boosting employment

80% of the shares are held by May Gurney and 20% by the Council

The contract started in July 2010 and will run for 10 years with possible extensions up to 25 years.

Services provided include waste and recycling collections, asset management and street cleansing

Benefits of the joint venture approach include:

o Savings of £1m per annum on running costs

o Reduction of landfill costs of up to £14m over a 10 year period and diversion of material for

recycling

o Creation of over 30 new jobs

o Providing support to Torbay Community Projects such as projects to support ex- offenders /

junior delinquents

o Providing dividends to Torbay Council

o Growing the business via new contracts from both the public and private sector e.g. TOR2

is currently bidding to carry out street cleansing for another local authority

Waste and recycling

Recycling is collected source segregated from households, using specialised vehicles (shown in

Image 1).

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Image 1: TOR2 paper recycling collection in action

Residual waste is collected fortnightly and recycling is collected weekly

TOR2 is currently managing and upgrading the Recycling Centre and Transfer Station. Around 44%

of household waste collected is now recycled up from 37% prior to the contract commencement.

The target for 2011/12 is 50%.

Asset management

TOR2 undertakes a significant amount of asset management maintaining a fleet of 250 vehicles

(including health authority and others’ vehicles), operating garage services, manufacturing signs

and advertising displays and maintaining Torbay’s property portfolio.

TOR2 also maintains the road systems and is responsible for gritting and snow clearance.

Street scene services

Operatives are employed to manage street scene work using the ethos of a lengthsman5. Six

people are employed on this basis and have their work directed by community groups which has

worked extremely well and led to high satisfaction with services.

Operatives are encouraged to report issues in real time using rangers mobile technology. Image 2

provides an example output of a report.

5 Traditionally this was a local person contracted to undertake a range of duties in a small area e.g. to maintain the roadside verges

and drainage, public open space and pathways

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Image 2: Rangers mobile technology example output

A summary of street cleaning statistics and resources deployed is provided in images 3 and 4

Image 3: TOR2 statistics

Image 4: TOR2 resources

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In order to use resources efficiently and achieve best value for money, vehicles, plant and

equipment are shared over a number of services and activities as summarised in figure 1

Figure 1: summary of how resources are shared

To date the approach taken by TOR2 has:

o Achieved top quartile performance for NI195

o Delivered 7.6% savings

o Increased productivity by 3%

2.2 Question and answer session with TOR2

The following are the questions asked by the attendees following the presentation, and responses provided

by TOR2.

Attendee question: How has the 3% increase in productivity been achieved?

Answer:

More accurate data reporting

Reviewing routes and working methods

Achieving synergies with other services

An added benefit of the approach is the increased visibility of staff in the area

Attendee question: What are the challenges associated with using resources across different services?

Answer:

Over 300 people were TUPE’d across so there were training and communication issues

Recent one to one feedback sessions have shown that the staff are energised and pleased that

some of their ideas are being taken forward by TOR2

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TOR2 has set up a supervisor academy to involve supervisors in business issues and assess training

needs

It is important that actions are implemented to the agreed timescales

Attendee question: How does 80:20 share of the business affect the relationship with councillors?

Answer:

TOR2 has informal discussions with Torbay’s cabinet member for the environment and a high

degree of engagement with other members. Three council members are also on a strategic panel.

A number of initiatives link to the core objectives of the council e.g. the community group work

Councillors can help with communications and TOR2 regularly attends public forums with

Councillors

Attendee question: How is risk shared between the council and May Gurney?

Answer:

TOR2 is a separate limited company and therefore survives on its performance

The main risk the council is exposed to is the liquidation issues if the company fails, however as

May Gurney is the major shareholder and provides the capital equipment etc the risk to the

Council is low

The contract has 194 KPIs so that any issues can be identified early

Attendee question: Can you identify the specific savings associated with different elements of the services?

Answer:

There are a number of efficiencies related to the way that a wide range of cleansing and

maintenance issues are approached in a geographic area

Overall cost savings have been made, but without knowing the Council’s previous costs for

different service elements in detail, the individual savings can’t be readily compared except at

macro level.

2.3 Presentation by Southwark Council: Regenerating ‘the Cut’

Southwark Council worked in partnership with Lambeth Council to regenerate ‘the Cut’, a high

footfall area near to Waterloo, as outlined in Figure 2. The Cut falls within two boroughs (Lambeth

and Southwark), has a tube station at either end (Southwark and Waterloo), two theatres, a further

education college, restaurants, and a residential mix.

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Figure 2: The Cut location

Consultation with residents and businesses highlighted the following concerns:

o Not enough pedestrian space;

o Too much clutter on pavement;

o Commercial waste bins unsightly and block footway;

o Street furniture old and dirty and not enough seating;

o Vehicles drive too fast and use road as a “rat run”;

o Not enough trees; and

o Inadequate lighting and security concerns.

Residential waste was being put out nightly and collected every morning while commercial waste

was stored on the street in bins and bags 24 hours a day with commercial collections taking place

at any time

The challenges for the project team were to improve:

o pedestrian access in the area

o the function of The Cut as a pedestrian route between Waterloo and Southwark

o the quality of the public realm for residents, visitors and people working locally

o the perception and reality of safety for people walking through the area

o the trading environment for businesses in the area

o and encourage the use of sustainable travel

The initial plans for underground waste containers were well received at first but as the project

progressed it was clear that residents and businesses did not want containers outside their

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premises. The solution needed to be simple, feasible, easy to maintain and cost competitive for

businesses. Further consultation was undertaken and residents and business identified that their

preferred option for waste management was “restricted collection times” and “placement of

waste”.

Figure 3. Breakdown of consultation responses

The team introduced time banded collections (6:00 – 8:00am and 3:00 – 5:00pm) along with shared

pavement plaques/waste markers to indicate where waste should be stored on the footpath. Fixed

penalty notices would be issued in the event of non-compliance.

Image 5: example of a pavement plaque

Additional regeneration works (including streetscape and pathways) were undertaken by the

Councils and were funded by Transport for London, Section 106 monies and European funding

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During the improvement works communication between different stakeholders was key including:

the two councils and different departments within them; businesses; waste contractors; and

residents.

Images of the Cut before and after the works are shown in images 6 and 7

Image 6: the Cut before

Image 7: The Cut after improvement works

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The project is still in operation and working well. Recently some additional litter bins have been

placed on the street by another Council department that do not fit with the regenerated area so

ongoing monitoring and coordination is required.

2.4 Presentation by Tower Hamlets Council: Back to basics contract management and

localisation

Tower Hamlet’s vision for its public realm is for: “The achievement of a high quality, consistent, and

well maintained public realm across the whole borough, irrespective of responsibility for

management or maintenance”.

The need to evolve working practices in street cleansing was driven by this corporate vision

Although standards were generally acceptable, changes were needed to ensure they would help

deliver the council’s corporate vision and enable community involvement

Current public realm contracts were let at various times over the past 15 years and had evolved via

variation orders and changes to working practices that differ from the original specifications

The current street cleansing and waste disposal contracts were let in 2006. Over the last year

Tower Hamlets has reviewed these contracts to assess whether they are still valid and fit for

purpose. Officers reviewed and cross referenced the contract specifications, contractor bid

method statements and variation orders in detail

In some instances the documents were found to be no longer relevant or fit for purpose

The Council felt that some variation orders could be better delivered as schedule of rate items,

giving the council greater control and more focused delivery

Through the review and further negotiations savings of around £2.5 million were identified. The

Council’s contractor worked in partnership with the council to realise the savings.

In order to prevent the savings from negatively impacting on cleanliness standards the Council

implemented additional measures including:

o Using Brick Lane as a trial area for time banded collections and bin-free streets which

included consultation (conducted by LRS Consultancy) with residents and businesses on

changes and a voluntary code of conduct for businesses

o Changing its policies (to no longer allow household and commercial bins to be stored on

the street)

o Entering into a partnership with a local residents group (the Muslim Women’s Collective) to

carry out NI195 surveys on behalf of the Council to provide an independent view from

residents of the cleanliness across the borough.

The partnership with the Muslim Women’s collective has had a number of benefits including:

o Freeing up council staff to concentrate on other issues

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o Helping the Council access a hard to reach community group

o Providing an opportunity for the women to gain skills and confidence to enable them to

achieve full time employment in the future

o Their enthusiasm enabled them to understand the issues related to keeping streets clean

and they passed on their knowledge to others in a particularly hard to reach section of the

community and helped change perception and improve habits.

In order to deliver services more effectively and make savings the council is localising services so

that the same staff member can respond to a range of local demands e.g. waste, highways, parks.

The borough is divided into 8 Local Area Partnerships based on local wards (LAP Areas) and staff

will work closely with all the community groups, businesses and residents. See figure 4 below.

Figure 4: LAPs in Tower Hamlets

This approach has been trialed successfully in LAPs 1&2 and will be implemented borough wide

from April.

The work to date has resulted in:

o Improved NI 195 litter scores which reduced from 13.8% to 7.3%.

o Increased income from trade waste

o Reduced fly tipping – 200 tonnes per month

o A greater community involvement in service delivery

2.5 Presentation by Waltham Forest Council: The impact of monitoring methodology

In 2008 Kier was appointed as the Council’s cleansing contractor

The NI195 litter score was then 33% and monitoring indicated that the streets had not been well

cleaned and were subject to repeated dumping and littering

The Council identified that there were local issues that were not being addressed through the

existing contract (e.g. the borough is extremely leafy and yet there were no additional resources in

place in autumn to manage the leaf fall)

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Street cleaning was traditionally ‘doubled up (i.e. one person would sweep rubbish into a pile,

another would put the rubbish into a bag and that bag would be left for a crew in a vehicle to pick

up)

To address these issues the Council invested additional funding and undertook a number of

cleansing enhancements including:

o 2 hour bag and fly-tipping clearance on all main roads

o Increased cleansing frequencies borough wide

o Gateway team to target the key transport routes into the borough

o Bags not left on streets overnight

o Increased barrow operatives in town centres and areas of high usage

o Daily cleanse of all school routes

o Dedicated leaf clearance crews from October until December

o Introduction of timed refuse collections for flats above shops in all main roads in the

borough

o The creation of an integrated service between enforcement and cleansing

o Moving from a reactive service to a proactive one.

Visual assessment of the cleanliness of the streets indicated that these enhancements had been

effective at improving cleanliness standards as shown in images 8 and 9

Image 8: Before the enhancements

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Image 9: After the enhancements

Despite the apparent improvement in cleanliness the scores did not improve between 2007/08 and

2008/09 as per figure 5.

Figure 5. Cleanliness scores

Street Cleansing Performance Indicator NI195

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

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06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11

Perc

en

tag

e o

f ro

ad

gra

de a

s b

elo

w

sta

nd

ard

WF

London Average

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After internally monitoring cleanliness standards the Council felt that the independent organisation

it had chosen to undertake the grading was not providing accurate scores. Some examples of the

contested grading are shown in images 10, 11 and 12.

Image 10: Valleyside Parade scored C for detritus due to the sand near to the kerb of the pavement

Image 11: Chingford Lane scored C for detritus as the grass from the verge on the right of the

picture had not been edged

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Image 12: Mays Lane Path (which is not Council managed) scored B for litter

The Council has now changed the organisation that undertakes the grading and its scores have

improved dramatically

Further work is currently being undertaken to encourage recycling of litter and reduce dog fouling

as per images 13 and 14

Images 13 and 14: continued improvement tactics

To make areas easier to cleanse and reduce litter the council has undertaken landscaping works to

remove shrubbery as shown in images 15 and 16 below.

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Images 15 and 16: Reduced littering through removal of shrubbery

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2.6 Question and answer session for Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest Councils

The following are the questions asked by the attendees following the presentations, and responses

provided by Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest Council

Attendee question: How did the private waste contractors react to time banding?

Answer:

Tower Hamlets: It wasn’t a big issue as most of the collections on Brick Lane were being undertaken

by the Council

Southwark: Some companies were apprehensive that they wouldn’t be able to meet the

requirements of the time bands. The Business Improvement District in the Cut offers the

businesses two timebands which affords businesses sufficient flexibility to meet the time bands.

Attendee question: What did you get the Muslim Women’s collective to do?

Answer:

Tower Hamlets: To do the NI195 scoring

The enforcement team provided training

They were happy to do it and sold the importance of not littering to the rest of the community

Attendee question: What types of questions did LRS Consultancy ask during the consultation in Brick Lane?

Answer:

LRS Consultancy: The surveys were conducted face to face for residents and businesses and

included questions on:

o Recycling and waste disposal methods and potential for change

o Opinions related to litter, cleanliness and vermin

o The visual amenity of the area

o Awareness of legislation

Attendee question: Where are the waste markers on the Cut?

Answer:

Southwark: On the pavement set back from the street

2.7 Background to cleansing in Westminster

While the City of Westminster has 200,000 residents its population swells to around one million

people in the City every day.

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Westminster uses a commissioning model and has outsourced its waste, parks and street cleaning

services.

Westminster generates around £11 million from trade waste collections.

Veolia has been Westminster’s waste, recycling and street cleansing contractor for fifteen years.

The current contract was renewed in September 2010 for seven years.

Veolia uses a village approach (figure 6) to cleansing in Westminster, with the Council area split into

smaller areas each with their own depots.

The depots can be quite small (e.g. just a garage to store equipment).

The use of the depots reduces non-productive travelling time, creates competition between

different villages (improving standards) and integrates operatives into the community.

Figure 6: the village areas in Westminster

For the purposes of managing street cleaning, Westminster splits the city into two zones that have

different requirements – a predominantly residential zone and a more commercial zone with a

night-time economy that requires a 24/7 service.

Where possible a manual approach to street cleaning is taken as this is felt to result in a higher

level of detail than mechanical cleansing alone. However, mechanical cleansing is effective at

quickly clearing large amounts of litter.

Westminster has some unique cleansing challenges including demonstrations and the effects of a

thriving night-time economy (see images 17 and 18). It has recently prepared its streets for the

royal wedding in April 2011.

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Image 17: Tuition fees demonstration

Image 18: Urination and vomit caused by the night-time economy cause problems

To try to address urination the council developed a map of ‘wetspots’. This was then used to

inform the location of new urinals on the street.

There are permanently fixed urinals (image 19) as well as movable urinals which can be relocated

as needed (e.g. to track ‘hot’ night-clubs). In response to public demand one urinal now remains

open in the day to meet the needs of local taxi drivers.

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Image 19: A permanently fixed urinal

The Council is currently trialing video auditing on two of the collection vehicles . This can be used

to identify any illicit trade waste and to check the quality of the collection service provided.

Image 20: Video auditing output

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Complaints are regularly analysed to identify issues

Resident surveys are undertaken to identify general opinions, rather than just the opinions of those

that are regularly in contact with the Council.

2.8 Methods of cleansing in Westminster

The following methods of cleansing were shown to the group as part of the presentation by Westminster

Council and in some instances also as part of the site tour.

Deep cleansing of pavements (viewed on the site tour)

Deep cleaning of pavements is currently being carried out in preparation for the royal wedding

later this year.

The cleansing is being carried out by Community Clean (a sub-contractor to Veolia)

Pressurised hot washing is used to remove built up dirt and gum from the pavements

Once cleansed the pavements can be coated with ‘Magicote’ which helps to protect the surface of

the pavement from gum and staining by forming a permeable barrier on the pavement. This is

effective for three years and helps to improve the ease of future cleansing.

Image 21: A cleansed and un-cleansed area

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Image 22: Operatives working behind barriers to undertake pressurised washing

Image 23: The pressurised hot water

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Image 24: The hot wash system is powered from the vehicle

The Cantonet (viewed on the site tour)

The Cantonet is an electrically operated urban vacuum cleaner that is particularly effective at

removing smoking related litter and cleaning cobbles.

Westminster has high levels of smoking related litter due, in part, to the night time economy, so

the Cantonet is especially useful for cleaning this.

Image 25: The Cantonet in operation

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Image 26: The Cantonet control panel

The Powerflex (not viewed on the site tour)

The Powerflex is a compact scrubber which can be used on roads and pavements

Image 27: The Powerflex

The City Go (not viewed on the site tour)

The City Go is diesel operated and quite noisy so is a highly visible presence on the street

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Image 28: The City Go

Application of Zybax (viewed on site tour)

Zybax is an enzyme based detergent system that is used to remove the smell associated with vomit

and urination.

It can also be effective against staining if applied several times.

In Westminster it is targeted for use in hotpot areas.

It is applied manually with a low pressure pump.

Image 29: Zybax being applied

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Image 30: Zybax being applied

Duo recycling bins (viewed on the site tour)

Westminster is currently rolling out duo bins with a compartment for recycling. They have a

cigarette stubbing pate on each side and can be fitted with a small gum compartment.

The recycling compartment has a small aperture to discourage contamination.

Image 31: The duo bin outside Charing Cross Station

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Image 32: The bins have a plastic liner and the refuse side has a large aperture to further

discourage contamination in the recycling side.

Coca-Cola has sponsored some of the duo bins in Westminster

Image 33: Coca-Cola logo on duo bin

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2.9 Question and answer session with Westminster Council

The following are the questions asked by the attendees following the presentation and site tour and

responses provided by Westminster Council

Attendee question: How often are residential roads swept?

Answer:

Three times a week but this is because residential properties are often in high-footfall areas

Attendee question: Has the video auditing been successful in reducing claims against the Council / Veolia?

Answer:

It has only recently been launched and since it is only in place on two collection vehicles there isn’t

any information about this available yet

Attendee question: How do you cleanse gullies when parked cars block access?

Answer:

Channels can be swept manually which means they can be swept even when cars are parked there

Individual gullies can be cordoned off if needed. The Council generally wouldn’t close a road to

undertake this cleansing.

3. Group activities:

3.1 Identifying and addressing factors that influence cost and cleanliness standards

Attendees worked in groups to identify and list out all possible:

Contributors to the cost of street cleansing services

Influences on the standard of street cleanliness

They were then asked to indicate which three items on each list they felt influenced cleanliness standards

or contributed most to the cost of street cleansing for them in their council (e.g. which ones were high

priority for them). The lists below summarise the high and medium low contributors / influences based on

the number of attendees that indicated them as priorities. A summary of the low contributors that were

indicated by only one or none of the attendees is provided in Appendix 6.2.

Contributors to the cost of street cleansing services

High priority contributors (indicated by 5 or more participants)

Level of littering / fly-tipping

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Vehicle and fleet maintenance

Scheduling (resources / rounds)

Medium priority contributors (indicated by 2 – 4 participants)

Contract specification

Political requests

Staff sickness, annual leave and terms and conditions

Land use type

Influences on the standard of street cleanliness

High priority influences (indicated by 5 or more participants)

Enforcement

Budgets

Parking (inhibiting cleansing of gullies)

Medium priority influences (indicated by 2 – 4 participants)

Insufficient litter bins

Social deprivation

Schools associated with littering at certain times of day

Demographics e.g. language / communication issues with residents

Councillors’ priorities and political commitment to enforcement

Culture of residents, businesses or tourists

Highways infrastructure

Housing type (e.g. nowhere to put bins near flats)

Attendees then worked in groups to develop a list of potential actions to address some of the high and

medium priority contributors to the cost of street cleansing services and influences on the standard of

street cleanliness that were identified in the first activity.

They assessed the potential:

Short term cost of the activity

Long term cost of the activity

Impact on savings

Impact on cleanliness

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The impact was assessed as either low, medium or high against these factors. In some instances it was not

possible to fully identify the impact of the activity e.g. changing methods of cleansing could have a high or

low cost depending on the scope of the work undertaken. The full outcomes of the session are summarised

in Appendix 6.3.

Some activities that attendees felt would have a low cost and high impact included:

Litter campaign with posters, community clean ups and cigarette plates on bins

Community involvement via clean up days

Sharing resources (e.g. between two local authorities)

Reducing scheduling from a gold service to a silver service

4. Considerations

This section draws on the general themes of the day and outlines some of the key considerations for local

authorities regarding cost efficiencies and improvements in performance for street cleansing. It is based

on: the session discussions; the background research that was undertaken to assist in planning the session;

and feedback from attendees on the actions they would take following what they learnt during the session.

Contracting

Approaches to contracting could include:

o Consolidation of contracts: Consolidation of multiple contracts within the same council may

allow for efficiencies (e.g. amalgamating contracts for waste, street cleansing, grounds

maintenance and parks)

o Joint venture: TOR2 has taken a joint venture approach and is securing additional contracts

from other local authorities

o Collaborative procurement: In Kent and Dover and Shepway Councils have a joint contract

for waste services, including street cleansing6

Ensure that contract specifications are flexible and practical and that the resources allocated are

actually provided


Consider different types of contract e.g. input, output and hybrid (and output based) contracts

Gain a full breakdown of costs to inform decision making on services and consider open book

accounting

Consider a performance based bonus for the contractor

6 http://www.shepway.gov.uk/content/view/201057/4364/

http://www.shepway.gov.uk/content/view/201057/4364/

36

Reducing specified requirements (e.g. to do cleansing to a lower standard or frequency) in order to

save money

Identify areas where the council may need to spend to save e.g. spending on bulky waste collection

versus paying for fly-tip removal, or spending on quality items to reduce maintenance or

replacement costs

Ensure that contracts remain valid and fit for purpose

Operational changes

Review methods of cleansing to ensure they are appropriate to cleansing requirements

Change sweeping frequencies (e.g. to reduce frequencies in residential streets) and re-zone streets

to ensure that resources are deployed to the areas of greatest need

Consider time-banding to assist with enforcement activities

Map resource requirements (e.g. wet-spots) to ensure that the type and timing of cleansing meets

local needs

Optimise shift patterns

Consider re-routing, vehicle tracking and changes to IT systems

Consider changes to bulky waste services to reduce fly-tipping

Introduce more litter bins in litter hotspots

Staff management

Ensure that staff have the appropriate equipment for their tasks

Introduce a robust sickness management policy

Consider staff performance incentives or awards

Consider utilising new technology such as video auditing or smart phones

Behaviour change

Run campaigns to increase awareness of environmental issues such as littering, fly-tipping, dog

fouling and fly posting

Communicate the costs of littering and flytipping

Increase self-reliance in communities to reduce littering through enforcement

Run community clean up events and undertake outreach in the community (e.g. with schools and

faith groups)

Monitoring and reporting

Review how monitoring is currently being undertaken and quality assure scores given

37

Understand how to monitor effectively and use the outcomes to improve standards

Set aside a budget for training on NI195

Consider use of generic inspectors for all street scene issues rather than multiple inspectors looking

at specific issues

Consider new reporting systems e.g.’ Love Clean Streets7’ and Love Clean London8

Working with residents and partners

Identify to inform working methods

Understand public priorities, perceptions and needs

Look for synergies with internal and external partners

Work with partners internally and externally to improve environment quality e.g. enforcement

teams, cleansing, highways and anti-social behaviour departments and estate housing providers.

Consider how a holistic approach may be delivered with partners e.g. to use health messages about

smoking rather than just relying on fixed penalties.

Involve residents in NI195 inspections

Undertake public consultation on options for cleansing cuts

Consider consultation with businesses and residents to develop approaches within areas of concern

Identify sponsorship to support schemes (e.g. sponsorship of litter bins)

Consider options for shared resources and joint procurement (e.g. sharing vehicles between two

local authorities or jointly procuring vehicles)

Introduce responsible retail agreements

Continued learning and information sharing The main challenge reported by local authorities contacted as part of the session was to reduce budgets

without impacting on the standard of street cleansing. This similarity in challenge opens opportunities for

joint working and information sharing. This could be undertaken in a number of ways, for example,

through:

Meetings such as ALCO and LROG and the associated members pages on

www.capitalwastefacts.com

Individual arrangements between local authorities (e.g. peer review or meetings)

Further facilitated T&M sessions (should funding become available)

7 www.lovecleanstreets.org

8 http://www.lovecleanlondon.org/Reports/Home

http://www.capitalwastefacts.com/

38

Other

Consider regeneration or changes to streetscape to improve cleanliness (e.g. removal of bushes to

increase ease of cleansing)

Use parking meters, temporary traffic orders and controlled parking to overcome parking issues

Reduce the need for cleansing through increased enforcement or provision of containment

Review and change policies e.g. charging for cleansing all areas of private land

5. Further information

For further information or for copies of the presentations given at the session please contact:

Ellen Struthers

Principal Consultant

LRS Consultancy

020 7061 6359

[email protected]

6. Appendices

6.1 Summary of challenges, advice, and work undertaken by attendees

Challenges

Budget cuts have led to: restructure of management in street cleansing; reduction of mechanical

brooms from 3 to 1; reduction in cleansing frequency in some town centre areas and residential

areas.

High performing cleansing contract but high cost. Significant pressure to reduce the cleansing

budget over the next three years

Our authority has to make drastic savings to our street cleaning contract in order to make savings

of £2m.

Large reduction in current street cleansing due to cuts required. Increased enforcement and the

introduction of time banded refuse collections

The Council is currently out tender for a new street cleansing contract – the main challenge is likely

to be affordability.

Doing more with same, increasing standards, reducing impact upon the environment

mailto:[email protected]

39

We are currently in the process of re-drafting our street cleansing contract for a commencement of

March 2012. Customer expectations are increasing however we must achieve maximum efficiency

and output for the best value possible and look for cost savings year on year with a change of

cleansing frequencies. We do not believe a purely performance based contract is the best model

,however a performance/input hybrid may give the best outcome.

Need to save £1million over the next four years, customers have high expectations,

Cleansing channels properly enabling us to clear deposits in heavily parked areas.

Need to produce costs savings in the coming year.

A high proportion of businesses and associated daily migrant population are challenging for street

cleansing.

Advice

Identify areas where sweeping frequencies can be reduced e.g. residential streets

Increase self-reliance in communities to reduce littering through enforcement


Keep an open mind and look for change opportunities

Benchmark your service, learn from others and share best practice

Communicating the costs of littering and flytipping is important

Understand the needs of the residents, be realistic about what can be achieved and look for

synergies with internal and external partners.

Understand how to monitor effectively to improve standards

Ensure that you get a contract that is workable and ensure that you are getting the resources

required to carry out the work effectively

Work undertaken

Generic inspectors for all street scene issues have been introduced which have replaced inspectors

looking at specific issues. Ad-hoc sweeps have been reduced and options for renewing the fleet are

being considered along with new ways to cleanse streets

The council has undertaken work with the local community to improve the environmental quality

and encourage recycling and waste reduction. The waste team has worked with internal partners

(e.g. enforcement, cleansing, highways and anti-social) via a monthly meeting to identify projects

to improve the environment. Meetings have also been held with housing providers to get them to

clean estate land to the same standards

A review of the contract specification is being undertaken and the council has undertaken work to

change attitudes to street cleanliness.

40

The Council is currently tendering street cleansing services. The current contract is already lean so

it will be hard to find savings. Contractors have been asked to split down the costs to show costs for

core services and non-core services so that members can decide which ones to keep.

Streets have been re-zoned to have different frequencies for sweeps which has improved

standards. The contractor got a bonus for improving standards in the first year

The council must find £2m of savings. The street cleansing and recycling and refuse contracts have

been amalgamated but this didn’t make any savings

The policy on street scene and anti-social behaviour has been reviewed.

The street cleansing budget is being reduced by 40% which will mean a significant reduction to the

current £11m budget. The council is reviewing how standards can be maintained with the reduced

budget. This may include changes to management systems, use of Supertrack, improvements to IT

systems, reduced beat sweeping and rezoning of streets or parts of streets.

The council is currently procuring a new contract and as part of this is looking at reduced spend.

Options to reduce spend include self-monitoring by the contractor, a partnership approach with

the contractor and changes to IT systems.

The council is working with partners to develop a holistic approach to address cultural issues e.g. to

use health messages about smoking rather than just relying on fixed penalties.

The council changed the way the streets were monitored which improved the scores

Enforcement and highway inspection are used to check standards

The council is currently re-letting the contract and is looking at hybrid contracts with input and

output specs to assess differences in efficiencies. Re-routing and will be undertaken and vehicle

tracking introduced.

The council has recently re-let the contract to an organisation that has little experience of street

cleansing which has caused some problems.

An eviro-crime communications campaign focusing on littering, fly-tipping, dog fouling and fly

posting has been launched to increase awareness of areas of issues.

6.2 Summary of low priority contributors to the cost and standard of street cleanliness

Low priority contributors to the cost of street cleansing services (indicated by 1 or 0 participants)

Fuel

Overheads, back office and IT support

Depot

Design of street furniture / pavement type

Equipment

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Markets

Events

Freedom of information requests

Disposal costs

National Indicator payments

New ideas

Consultants

Membership fees

Antisocial behavior

PPE

EPA regulations

Enforcement

Communications and customer care

Unpaid commercial waste

Compensation to contractors

Planned vs reactive work

Lost time and down time

Clear all policies

Weather

High turnover of commercial properties

Specialist equipment

Training / skills of staff

Contracted work vs variation orders

Emergency works

Contract monitoring

Overtime costs (weekends etc)

Nature of the area

Requests from residents

Number of litter and recycling bins

Low priority influences on the standard of street cleanliness (indicated by 1 or 0 participants)

Industrial areas – spillage and fly-tipping hotpots

Communally owned land (e.g. alleyways)

Transient communities (students, colleges etc)

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Fly-tipping, flyposting and graffiti hotpots

Statutory company works (e.g. Thames Water)

Foxes opening waste bags

Derelict land

Major landowners that maintain areas to a lower standard

Insufficient space for recycling / waste containers for householders leading them to be stored on

the street (an associated littering problems)

Involvement of residents in managing street scene

Population growth and associated new housing stock

Fast food outlets

Departmental cooperation (cross team and department working)

Major tourist centres

Nigh time economy

Seasonality (e.g. leaves, blossom, snow)

Holidays (e.g. more litter in summer)

Change in management (e.g. in-house to contractor)

Impact of cuts (e.g. less staff and remaining staff needing to work harder)

Stadiums / event venues

Indicators and targets (e.g. NI195 or BVPI 199)

Financial incentives

6.3 Group activity outcomes: Identifying and addressing factors that influence cost and

cleanliness standards

Tables 1 to 9. Tables 1 to 5 outline the outcomes of discussions related to contributors to the cost of street

cleansing services and tables 6 to 9 outline the discussions related to influences on the standard of street

cleanliness. Attendees had rated the impact of actions as either low (L), medium (M) or high (H).

Table 1: High priority related to cost - level of littering fly-tipping

Action Short term cost Long term cost Impact on savings Impact on cleanliness

Increased enforcement / time-bands

H L M H

Litter campaign with posters, community clean ups and stubbies

L L H H

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Bulky waste services

H H H H

More bins M L/M M H

Regeneration / streetscape

L - H L H H

Table 2: High priority related to cost - vehicle and fleet maintenance


Responsibility of contractor

H H Nil Nil

Shared resource (e.g. between two local authorities)

L L H Reduction

Combined contract procurement

H L M Variable

Table 3: High priority related to cost - scheduling (resources / rounds)


Reduce scheduling from gold service to silver – review shift patterns

None None Reduction in unit cost but potential contractual penalty

L

4 town centre shifts by 3 operatives

None None High (Not completed)

Moving from barrow beats (5 operatives) to mobile team (4 operatives)

None (saving of one person off set against cost of vehicle hire)

(Not completed) H A subsequent visit to collect bags no longer required Morale and H&S improved, efficiency, flexible, responsive

Table 4: Medium priority related to cost - staff (sickness, annual leave and terms and conditions)


Staff incentives L L L Increased

Removing enhanced payments

L L M Negligible

Introducing shifts L L M Increase

Robust sickness management policy

L Variable Variable Increase

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Appropriate equipment, clothes and training

M L L Increase

Table 5: Medium priority related to cost - land use type


Assess cleansing needs for different land use

L L M H

Set standards across public realm

L L M H

Public priorities / perception

M M H H

Prevention e.g. enforcement / containment

H M H H

Waste strategy L L M M

Review methods of cleansing

L/M L H H

Table 6: High priority related to cleanliness standards - enforcement


Low level gum / cigarettes

L H L H

High level more in-depth detective work

L H M H

Training – legislation changes

L H L/M H

Shared good practice / partnership work

L L M M/H

Community involvement – clean up days

L L H H

FPS’s / PCN’s / court action

M M M M

Reporting systems e.g. love clean streets

L/M M M Perceived H

Table 7: High priority related to cleanliness standards performance - budgets


Consolidating contracts

Variable L H H

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Use of third sector L L M M

Reducing requirements (do less or do less well)

L L H H (negative)

Spend to save e.g. bulky waste vs fly-tips

H L H H

Increase recycling and reuse

M-H M Unknown Unknown

Change in policy e.g. charging

L M H H

Shared services M/H L H Unknown

Table 8: High priority related to cleanliness standards - parking (inhibiting cleansing of gullies)


Controlled parking H L H H

Commuter parking and out of hours cleaning

M M L H

Temporary traffic order and deep cleaning

L L L H

Parking meters M L Variable M

Table 9: Medium priority related to cleanliness standards - social deprivation


Creation of mobile crew (ranger type role from barrow beat shift 5am – 2pm and 2pm to 10pm)

L None H H

Community engagement e.g. faith groups, schools, local assemblies, doorknockers, community clean-ups and responsible retail agreements)

L None H H

Documents

Prepared by Ellen Struthers, LRS Twinning and Mentoring