Agenda item

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Housing and Environment which (a) updated the Committee on the findings of recent research completed by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which explored why affluent neighbourhoods tended to have higher levels of street cleanliness than deprived neighbourhoods and how local authorities could close this gap, improve performance and achieve desired standards in all areas;  and (b) provided an update on the progress made since 2004 by the Council’s street cleaning service in closing the gap and comparing the recommendations of that report with the strategies and actions already in place by the Council.

The report provided a detailed overview of the current position regarding street cleanliness in Aberdeen city wherein it was highlighted that through the adoption of planning and targeting resources relative to needs, the service had not only led to a dramatic narrowing of the gap in street cleanliness levels between the more affluent and less affluent areas of Aberdeen, but a high absolute level of performance had also been achieved.   Over this period, Aberdeen’s street cleanliness statutory performance indicators (LEAMS) had also shown continued improvement over the last few years, leading to the most recent peer review score of 76, well above the Scottish benchmark of 67 and in fact the Council’s best score to date.   In addition the services own internal PAC rating had also shown continuous improvement in recent years improving from an average of 82 in 2004 to the present average score of 94 as of December 2009.   The PAC rating scores over the last five years were attached as appendix 1 to the report.   

Thereafter the report highlighted the strategies and actions already in place in the city which met the recommendations outlined in the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report, and outlined the next steps for the service.  It was also advised that work had begun on a route and branch review of where the Council was at the moment, with the aim of building upon what worked well for the service.   It would also involve looking at future community involvement to and deciding on what areas of work the Council should be concentrating on in the future.   This would necessarily involve a large amount of work which would be completed by the end of 2010.    In order that this work had a set of quantitative as well as qualitative parameters, the service was committed to make a further £78,000 of savings in the last quarter of the financial year 2010/11 and £313,000 in the subsequent full financial years. 

Appended to the report was (1) the Council’s internal PAC rating scores between 2004-2009; and (2) three separate charts detailing the PAC scoring since 2007/2008 and 2009/2010 for both less affluent and affluent areas, as well as the average PAC rating for both areas since 2007.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)         to note that the Street Cleansing Service had made considerable and sustained progress towards reducing the gap in the standard of street cleanliness between less affluent and more affluent areas of the city, whilst continuing to find efficiency savings; 

(ii)        to instruct the Director of Housing and Environment Services to provide a further report on progress at the beginning of the calendar year 2011; and

(iii)       to commend the service on the performance scores achieved.