Agenda item

            The Committee considered the undernoted report:

“Relevant Background Information

      The figures presented in this report cover the third quarter of the financial year i.e. the period from October 2009 to December 2009.  Monitoring figures were measured by Cleansing Services Quality Officers.  Enforcement, and Education and Awareness information was supplied by the Customer Support Service and the Community Awareness Section within Cleansing Services, which were responsible for these functions over the period concerned.

      The monthly monitoring programme consists of a random 5% sample of streets throughout the city being inspected and graded.  From the grading, a Street Cleanliness Index is calculated and plotted for the various areas of the city and the city as a whole.

      The index range is from 1 to 100, with a Cleanliness Index of 67 being regarded as an acceptable standard by Tidy NI.  The results show the trends on a month to month basis.  To alleviate the influence of spurious results on the overall index, the results are averaged over the last 4 surveys.  Spurious results may occur for reasons such as adverse weather conditions, seasonal problems etc.

Key Issues

      The overall city wide cleanliness index for this quarter is 74.  This is a slight increase from the previous quarter’s cleanliness index of 73.  The index for the same period in the previous year was 72.

      The breakdown by individual area is as follows:

North

The North Cleanliness Indices for October 2009 to December 2009 were 69, 72 and 70 respectively.  This represents an increase for November (up 3), and decreases for October (down 3) and a small decrease for December (down 1), by comparison to those figures for the same period in the previous financial year viz. 72, 69 and 71 respectively. 

The area however is maintaining a good to very good level of cleanliness.

South

The South Cleanliness Indices for October 2009 to December 2009 were 78, 78 and 78 respectively.  This represents an increase for all months, with October (up 3), November (up 2) and December (up 5) by comparison to those figures for the same period in the previous financial year viz. 75, 76 and 73 respectively.

The area is maintaining a consistently very good level of cleanliness.

East

The East Cleanliness Indices for October 2009 to December 2009 were 77, 77 and 77 respectively.  This represents an increase for October (up 3) and November (up 2), and a similar score for December (77), by comparison to those figures for the same period in the previous financial year viz. 74, 75 and 77 respectively.

The area is maintaining a consistently very good level of cleanliness.

      West

The West Cleanliness Indices for October 2009 to December 2009 were 70, 72 and 74 respectively.  This represents a similar score for October (70), and increases for November (up 3) and December (up 5), by comparison to those figures for the same period in the previous financial year viz. 70, 69 and 69 respectively. 

The area is maintaining a good to very good level of cleanliness.

      Central

The Central Cleanliness Indices for October 2009 to December 2009 were 71, 74 and 73 respectively.  This represents an increase for all months, with October (up 1), November (up 4) and December (up 5) by comparison to those figures for the same period in the previous financial year viz. 70, 70 and 68 respectively.

The area is maintaining a good to very good level of cleanliness.

      Complaints / Enquiries

There were 1034 complaints/enquiries regarding street cleansing during the quarter (by comparison to 1307 last quarter).

There were 6 Corporate Complaints (6 Stage One, 0 Stage Two and 0 Stage Three) during the quarter, none of which related to street cleansing (all Stage 1).

      Enforcement

There were 296 Fixed Penalty Notices issued under the Litter (NI) Order 1994, and 45 summonses issued.  In addition, 151 Article 20 Notices were issued requesting information.

      Community & Education Projects

During the last quarter, the Community Awareness Team (on behalf of Cleansing Services) received a ‘Green Apple’ award for the recent ‘Lord Mayors Big Cleanup Challenge’ project.  The Team took part in 5 community talks involving 595 participants, including speaking at the Tidy NI litter summit held in Belfast.

The Team also facilitated 12 community cleanups involving 224 volunteers and undertook 68 school visits, promoting the anti?litter message to 2513 pupils.

The Community Awareness Team also attended 15 community/ residents meetings on behalf of Cleansing Services.

Resource Implications

      There are no financial, human resources, asset or other implications in this report.

Recommendation

      Members are asked to note the content of this report.”

            In response to a question from a Member, the Head of Cleansing Services confirmed that the Council had written to various community groups across the City, inviting them to participate in environmental clean-ups within their areas and advising of the fact that the Council could assist them in this work.  This information would be publicised also within the next issue of City Matters and posted on the Council’s social networking sites.

            The Committee noted the information which had been provided.