COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM AREA COMMITTEE
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
QUESTION NO. 4
QUESTION: Councillor C. Keane
"To ask the Manager to report on the Road Sweeping contract with a view to ascertaining (a) cost (b) benefits (c) results after cleaning are minimal. To state what supervision/analysis/inspection has been carried out in the past two years? and current inspection? Taking into consideration many roads virtually remain unchanged following visit of sweeper – weeds still on road; litter still on pavements; etc. etc. and to discuss if other options have been explored? To state (d) who/what department is responsible for cleaning up litter from pavements/bushes/hedges? (e) to state what department is responsible for cleaning weeds from roadside and from pavements and (f) to outline the ‘plan’ and frequency?"
REPLY:
(a) The cost of the road sweeping contract was €2.45m in 2009, is €2.1m in 2010 and is expected to be €1.8m in 2011. The savings achieved on this contract in 2010 and for 2011 have been negotiated with the contractor on the basis of maintaining the current level of service and service frequency.
(b), (c) & (f) The contract is for the sweeping of all roads within the County on the following basis – main roads are swept monthly, housing estate roads are swept quarterly, industrial estate roads are swept twice yearly and motorways and dual carriageways are swept quarterly. The contract includes associated works such as gully cleaning, weed control and removal of leaves in winter time. Under the contract the road way is swept clean and the adjacent footpath and/or grass margin is litter-picked up to a maximum width of 8 metres. The contract does not include for the removal of litter from planted areas, or from around trees or hedging. The weed control element of the contract is carried out in housing estates only, and involves the spraying of weed killer only at the kerb edge both where the roadway meets the kerb and where the footpath meets the kerb.
(d) As outlined above the contractor engaged by the Environmental Services Dept is responsible for the removal of litter from roads and footpaths in accordance with the frequency of service as described. Litter in bushes and hedges is outside the scope of this contract, however in general the Environmental Services Dept is responsible for litter control alongside roads and footpaths while the Parks Dept is responsible for litter control on and at the boundaries of parks and open spaces.
(e) The road sweeping contractor is responsible for weed control in housing estates only, and at the locations on the kerb edge of the footpath as described above. The contract does not provide for the physical removal of weeds, but rather provides for their prevention by means of applying weed killer. Roads other than those in housing estates are not covered by the weed control element of the road sweeping contract.
The road sweeping contractor has nine vehicles in operation each day with five of these engaged in road sweeping, three on gulley cleaning and one on litter picking. The supervisery staff of the cleansing section are responsible for checking the contractor's performance and this in general involves carrying out at least one spot check of each sweeping or gulley cleaning route that is operational on the day in question. The Council has had no issues with the contractor during the lifetime of the contract with regard to contract performance and the quality of cleaning provided, however it has come to the Council's attention very recently that there has been some slippage from the contract schedule in recent times with some routes not being swept on the days alloted in the schedule. The Council has commenced a process to address this issue with the contractor. It is worth noting that the road sweeping contractor in 2009 removed 3,400 tonnes of waste from the County's roads and footpaths and 1,560 tonnes of waste from road gullies giving a total of 4,960 tonnes of waste removed in the year.