Street cleaning and parks staff praised
COUNCIL workers who keep the borough’s streets clean and tidy have been praised for their efforts.
The endorsement comes as figures show the service is cheaper as a cost per household than most other authorities and has a high satisfaction rate among residents.
A report to Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council’s scrutiny commission pointed out that standards had been maintained or even improved despite the service saving almost £69,000 between 2013 and 2016.
Councillors were told: “The street cleansing service is low cost, has high customer satisfaction and performs well.”
A statutory requirement the service is responsible for litter, dog fouling, fly tipping, graffiti, fly posting and abandoned vehicles.
The council runs a differ- ent structure to other authorities with neighbourhood wardens and street cleansing teams merging in 2012 to form the clean neighbourhood team.
Officers tackle enforcement, education and community engagement with campaigns around the priorities of litter, dog fouling and fly tipping.
A citizen panel survey showed 81% of residents were satisfied with the cleanliness of the streets in general with a cost per household of £16.94, as opposed an average of £30.70 for other councils.
The council is not sitting on its laurels, however, recent improvements have included taking on a new officer to better tackle environmental crime and increase education, plans to invest in specialist street sweeping equipment and expansion of a team which contracts out to businesses, residents and other council services.
In the same report members were also updated on the performance of the grounds maintenance service, which takes care of 142 hectares of green space across the borough.
These spaces include 13 principal and 45 smaller parks, six countryside parks and nine canal sites, 104 housing sites, Ashby Road Cemetery, eight closed churchyards, six allotment sites, 24 car parks and nine industrial estates.
Here customer/resident satisfaction was even higher at 88% and the service was described as flexible and responsive - for example in February the team were able to create three gangs quickly to clear up fallen trees following Storm Doris.
Councillor David Bill (Lib Dem, Clarendon) said: “All the councillors who spoke at the scrutiny Commission expressed support for the street cleaning and maintenance of parks across the area.”