Best Value
Council Direct
Services gets Government Approval
The Borough Council's Direct Services division gained the approval
of the governments' Best Value Inspectors in a report published
this year.
The Inspection team spent several
weeks examining the services provided by the Pyms Lane based team.
This included two weeks on site in and around Crewe and Nantwich,
seeing for themselves how the service was delivered and hearing
what local people thought of it.
They focussed on several key
areas, together worth £3.6m expenditure:
- The "Streetwise" service - street cleansing, landscape
maintenance, dog fouling, graffiti removal and public toilets
- Queens Park
- Highway verge maintenance
In their initial findings they rated
us as a "good service which is likely to improve" and awarded two
stars from a maximum possible of three. (Only one other service in
the country has achieved three star status).
The inspectors picked out many
features which helped them judge the service as "good",
including:
- Service one of the best in the country ("in the top quartile")
on street cleanliness and fly tipping.
- Service takes lead from Community Plan focus on "sense of pride
in the physical appearance.. and first impressions of the
Borough"
- High standard of street cleanliness and green areas
- Cleansing costs lowest in Cheshire
- £123k saved this year through new working arrangements
- Grass cutting and shrub maintenance compares well with rest of
Cheshire
- Most people the inspectors spoke to were satisfied with action
following a call to Streetwise
- Special member of staff employed to enforce litter and
cleanliness laws
- Staff competent, and work on their own initiative
- Shows good example of joined up government
They also thought the service would
"probably improve", and make the council a "leading edge"
authority because:
- We are starting new "adopt a verge" and "adopt a bin" schemes
to involve the community
- Litter education and enforcement campaigns starting
- Creating public display area in Crewe Market- cleanliness
theme
- Single point of contact for the public
Under the "adopt a verge " scheme
householders will be encouraged to look after a stretch of verge in
front of their property. Likewise where extra litter bins are
requested by residents, they will be asked to "adopt" them. The
idea is to allow Streetwise to focus its resources on other areas
of priority- for example safety issues in public areas.
People who respond to the call may
be asked if they would like to have their efforts recorded on a new
Borough Pride web page featuring a photo gallery.
Streets ahead: how the government inspectors rated
Crewe and Nantwich on Streetwise Services:
|
Judgement 1:
How good is the service ?
|
|
Poor
|
Fair
|
Good
|
Excellent
|
|
|
|
C+N
Direct
Services
|
|
|
Judgement 2:
Is it likely to improve ?
|
|
No
|
Unlikely
|
Probably
|
Yes
|
|
|
|
C+N
Direct
Services
|
|
The report does point out areas
which require more attention. In particular the service needs to do
more about dog fouling, including emptying dog-bins more often.
Alongside this it needs to step up the education and law
enforcement campaign to reduce the dog fouling problem.
It also needs to increase recycling
of grounds maintenance green waste, and to improve communication
and consultation with the public.
" We are very pleased that the Best
Value Inspectors have reached this initial judgement. It is
especially valuable as they are independent, and have wide
experience of similar services throughout the country. It is
something that all the staff on the Streetwise team can be proud
of", said David Marren, head of Direct Services.
"But we are by no means complacent",
he added. "The inspectors also pointed, as we expected, to areas
which need more work, and we are already gearing up to tackle those
in the months to come. We intend to deliver an even better service
to the people of Crewe and Nantwich, and it's pleasing to see the
government inspectors believe that we can do so."
The Best Value Inspectors' Final
Report has now been published and is available to the public from
the Inspectorate.
Contact:
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