The Committee considered a report by the Head of Neighbourhoods and Engagement that updated it on progress on the actions taken following its last meeting on 30 January 2014. 

Attached to the report were 15 Appendices which the Constituency Manager presented to the Committee on an individual basis.

Appendix 1 – Report to the Cabinet Member for Environment and Sustainability dated 27 February 2014

Improving the environment had been agreed as a priority for Birkenhead in 2013/14 with a budget allocation of £20,000 for this purpose.  The Constituency Manager had been tasked with developing a proposal on how to tackle the high levels of waste in alley ways at the Committee meeting on 30 January 2014 (Minute No. 16 refers.).

Appendix 1 informed of proposals the Cabinet Member had agreed to improve the local environmental quality of terraced housing areas by tackling alleyway dumping in a particular way.  There would be two phases.  Phase 1 – The Good Neighbour Campaign (All terraced households) and Phase 2 – Pilot Studies.

Members were reminded that the Council at its Budget meeting had allocated £400,000 to address the concerns of many residents over significant fly-tipping in many parts of the Borough.  The allocation would be used to reinstate the monthly cleaning of entries.  A two year programme was to be developed to tackle the issue of fly-tipping which was aligned with the work carried out in taking forward the Recycling and Waste Strategy.  This allocation would reinstate monthly clean ups but the programme included a strategy and interventions to change residents behaviour in relation to this problem.  The project details were outlined in the report to the Cabinet Member – Environment and Sustainability. 

As a result of the Council’s budget allocation the Constituency Manager had not progressed the proposal on how to tackle the high levels of waste in alley ways to avoid any duplication.  However, a proposal was now being developed, to work in the Birkenhead area, to deal with pieces of land, of unknown ownership, which were considered ‘eye sores’ which were attracting litter and/or fly tipping.  The Committee was informed that a reactive service to remove fly tipping in Birkenhead would be included in the service specification to be drafted.

Members were keen to explore the contractual arrangement currently in place with its contractor for waste collection, Biffa.  A Member reported that Streetscene offered a waste collection within five days but the contractual arrangements did not provide a guarantee on this time period and it was considered unacceptable for people to have to wait three months for rubbish to be removed from their streets.  It had not been negotiated with the contractor that rubbish would be removed as soon as it was reported.  It depended on the seriousness of the dump.  The Chair informed that he considered that the Council should ensure that its contractor delivered the service that it required. 

Appendix 2 – Prosecutions for Waste Offences

The Committee noted that where any person was found to have not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Neighbourhoods and Engagement updating on progress in relation to the actions identified at its meeting on 28 November 2013 (Minute 9 refers).

Ms Dawn Tolcher, Constituency Manager introduced the report highlighting the action to be undertaken and the progress to date.

In relation the recruitment of a post graduate to undertake further analysis and provide conclusions and recommendations on the priorities to inform the Constituency Plan. Two member’s and the Constituency Manager indicated that they had met with academics from Liverpool University who would be assisting with the task of collating the public spen in Birkenhead. some data was presented at the previous committee meeting but now the work will focus on the spend on services for children under 5 to help us shape our early intervention work.

In relation to constituency profiling, Ms Tolcher indicated that a session was to be held with Members on Tuesday 3 February 2014, to update them on the Constituency Profile that public health have formulated. A Member stressed the need for the Committee to be more proactive in accessing all available funding streams.

A task and finish group was established to determine the priorities and proposals for spend in 2013/14.

The Group suggested that the priorities for the funding allocation for this financial year were improving the environment, Date Audit of current spend and need ; improving services for young people and improving communication with the community.

Lead Members for each of the four priorities introduced the priorities and highlighted the recommendations which required approval from the Committee. The following comments were made:-

Improving the Environment

A Member indicated that this priority was looking at tackling the issue of cleanliness of entries. Funding had now been identified to improve this as part of a pilot project. It was suggested that aside from BIFFA, funding could be used to fund the employment of officers to assist in regular cleansing of the “hotspots”. It was further suggested that education and promotion could be enhance to encourage the public to care for their environment.

A Member suggested that the community payback team could be asked for assistance.

Ms Tolcher, Constituency Manager indicated that as part of this project, the issue of prosecution would be looked into and a report would be presented at the next meeting indicating prosecution rates and how we can make people more aware of the processes.

In response to the Chair’s question as to how many people had been prosecuted to date. A Member stressed the difficulty of gaining evidence in order to prosecute.

Members of the public commented that the increase they felt was largely down to the “bulky item” removal service now being chargeable and suggested that the Council may wish to look at waiving the fee or charge it at a reduce rate.

It was further commented that landlords also had a big part to play in the project, ensuring that their tenants cleared their property upon leaving.

A  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16