The Scrutiny Officer presented the Scrutiny report on Clean Streets. He explained the Committee had reviewed the performance of Council’s Street cleaning, waste management and graffiti. They had 3 recommendations for the Board to consider.

Cllr Tanner, Board Member for Cleaner, Greener Oxford, Climate Change and Transport commented on the recommendations. He explained that in times of emergency staff will be taken off cleaning duties to help, and that street cleaning standards would be circulated to all councillors.

In terms of recommendation 3 which sought clarification on the legal powers the City Council has to ensure the removal of graffiti from privately owned properties.

Cllr Tanner asked the legal representative for more information on council’s powers to remove graffiti and in what circumstances. The Legal representative said he would provide a briefing note on the issue and would circulate it to all members.

Cllr Turner explained that there was a budget provision to do more to remove graffiti from private buildings.

The Board accepted the recommendations and noted that the budget had an element to tackle private property graffiti.

Contact Officer: Douglas Loveridge, Streetscene Services Manager

Tel: 01865 252957

Email: dloveridge@oxford.gov.uk

The Committee considered the report from Streetscene Direct Services. Douglas Loveridge, Streetscene Services Manager, and Geoff Corps, Cleaner Greener Services Manager, introduced the report and answered questions.

They explained the remit of the Streetscene team. During the floods at the start of the year, operatives were heavily involved in clearing up and preventative work. As a result while work in the city centre was unaffected other work was not carried out. This had an effect on the cumulative statistics.

The city centre manager and Environmental Health team were working with businesses and waste collectors to reduce the problem of trade waste on streets in the city centre. Proposals for alterations to the council’s trade waste collections to reduce the time trade waste was on the street would be presented to the City Executive Board for decision.

They explained the policy for cleaning graffiti from private property including street furniture.

They explained the schedule for daily, weekly and deep cleaning city streets, that there was a schedule for sweeping leaves, and that if necessary particular problem areas could be dealt with outside the schedules.

The Streetscene team were happy to walk round wards with councillors and discuss solutions for problem areas.

The Committee made the following points

·         councillors thanked the team for their prompt responses to their queries;

·         it supported the review of the city centre bins and changes to the trade waste and general waste removal in the city centre to improve the street scene;

·         adequate resourcing of normal street cleaning as well as prioritising flood clearance work should be considered as flooding occurred annually.

and asked for:

·         details of the cleaning schedules to be circulated to all councillors so that any additions could be suggested before the budget was agreed by Council;

·         clarification of the legal powers around graffiti removal;

·         that the website give a consistent message on the council’s policy and processes on graffiti removal.