Agenda item

To consider a report by the Lead Officer: Community Housing, which provides an update on progress with the grounds maintenance contract for Housing owned land, had been circulated previously.

                                                                                                        10.05 a.m.

Lead Officer – Community Housing introducing the report (previously circulated) advised that responsibility for grounds maintenance on land in the ownership of the Housing Department now lay with the Department, it had previously been the responsibility of the Highways Department.  Tenants were charged a service charge of £1.50 per week for the service provided and the contract was financed from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) budget.  It was acknowledged that there had been issues during 2015 which had generated numerous complaints from tenants, these were because the contract changeover process could not commence early enough, consequently the new contractor was not appointed until June which was well into the grass growing season. 

The Lead Officer advised:

·                      that since the new grounds maintenance arrangements had been established land ownership between various Council departments had become much clearer;

·                      83% of those who submitted complaints during 2015 about the grass cutting arrangements had indicated that they were now satisfied with the service they received;

·                      As the Council now managed its own HRA account it had plans to invest in schemes to improve the environment in and around council housing estates – proposed neighbourhood environmental improvement schemes could also involve the community and see them bid for funds for their own collective projects;

·                      Details of funding already allocated to various projects, including play areas, were included in Appendix 2 to the report.

In response to Members’ questions the Lead Member for Public Realm and officers:

·                      undertook to check with the contractor whether they could uproot weeds in neighbourhoods rather than spray them, as it was felt that this was a more effective method of eradicating the problem;

·                      confirmed that the Council now had better information on land ownership within the authority;

·                      whilst the co-ordination of grass cutting in communities could be a complex matter every effort was made to undertake the work in a co-ordinated manner.  As the ownership of parcels of land became clearer the situation should improve further;

·                      contractors usually undertake a litter pick before they cut an area of land.  The Housing Department also had a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in place with the Streetscene Service which meant they could call on their services if required.  The Department was also looking to working closer with communities with a view to keeping them clean and tidy.  Four Neighbourhood Community Officers would be appointed shortly who would be responsible for, amongst other things, environmental matters.  These officers would work with communities and run activities such as litter picking events in a bid to get residents to take ownership of their neighbourhoods.  Such events would support and enhance the health and well-being of individuals as well as communities;

·                      undertook to discuss with individual Members issues of concern to them in the Cynwyd, Rhyl and Prestatyn areas;

·                      confirmed that whilst Council tenants were levied a £1.50 per week service charge for ground maintenance work the Council could not levy such charges on individuals that lived on the same estates and who were owner-occupiers.   Owner-occupiers of individual flats in a Council housing complex could be levied the service charge as they were leasehold owners rather than freehold owners, and were already levied a service charge for other services provided to their property by the Council;

·                      informed Members that the actual cost of grounds maintenance during 2015/16 was £20k higher than quoted in the report, this was due to additional unforeseen costs.  They were confident that costs would be driven down in the future;

·                      advised that pesticides used by contractors on Council owned land was not of an equivalent strength to that used by the agricultural industry and therefore not as effective – legislation prohibited local authorities using agricultural pesticides on public health and safety grounds;

·                      confirmed that the cutting of hedges around a Council property was the responsibility of the tenant.  If the tenant did not maintain hedges to a reasonable standard enforcement action could be taken.  If they experienced difficulty in maintaining hedges the Council could undertake the work on his/her behalf, for which a charge would be made;

·                      undertook to ask the contractor to inform residents of when they would be in an area to cut the grass etc. and to ask them to ensure that all vehicles were parked in an appropriate place to ensure that they did not hinder access or the maintenance work in anyway;

·                      confirmed that where tenants or others had encroached onto Council-owned land over a period of time the Council would in due course reclaim the land and maintain it accordingly.

Prior to the conclusion of the discussion the Chair read out an e-mail from Councillor Colin Hughes which detailed an extremely positive response he had received to a complaint with regards to grounds maintenance in his ward recently.  Whilst the Committee acknowledged that there had been difficulties initially when the new contract was commenced in June 2015, these problems had now been resolved and to date this year the grounds maintenance contract seemed to be delivered in line with the contract’s requirements.  It was:-

RESOLVED – that-

(i)            subject to the above observations, to receive the information and endorse the measures taken to manage the contract and mitigate against similar problems to last year arising in future; and

(ii)          further work be undertaken to support the delivery of a co-ordinated approach by the Council to grounds maintenance work in communities, including exploring the feasibility of potential joint contracts between services and a contractor prior to commencing any future tendering processes.