COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 10, 2012

QUESTION NO. 21

QUESTION: Councillor G. O'Connell

To ask the Manager for a report on the budget allocation for Road Sweeping per electoral area for 2012 and how this relates to the service provided in previous years and what reduction, if any has taken place / is planned from that agreed by the members when approving the 2012 Budget?

REPLY:

The Budget provision for the Council's roadsweeping contract is over €2.5 million in 2012 which was the same figure as in 2011.

The road-sweeping contract tendered in late 2011 was revised to include for greater flexibility of the services as required by the Council, additional weed removal in all areas and an extension to the duration of the leaf clearance operation. Currently housing estates are swept 4 times a year and gullies are cleaned at least once a year on a scheduled basis. Certain gullies in areas that are prone to flooding are cleaned twice or four times depending on the severity of the flooding risk.  Main Roads are swept on a monthly cycle and Dual Carriageways and Interchanges are swept every three months.

The Council utilises the services of both the Operations and Cleansing Units based in Ballymount depot in conjunction with the Private Contractor.  This combined works programme ensures that areas can be cleaned in the interim periods between scheduled sweeps and indicators developed to enable an ongoing review of the level of resources and nature of the operations required.   The expenditure provision for the Cleansing Service in the Council's 2012 Budget is €4,871,400 while the Operations Unit cost is €2,906,700 in 2012. Budgets are not assigned on the basis of electoral area however data is being gathered through the Council's new Scheduling System that will facilitiate area specific reporting from next year.