COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, November 11, 2013

MOTION NO. 8

MOTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

That this Council requests the Manager to present an update report on the reform of public realm management services, in particular litter management services; and to further request the Manager to ensure:

- the use of green machines across the county;

- more frequent targeting of litter blackspots; and

- the emptying of litter bins in busy urban areas over weekends.

REPORT:

The priority focus following the re-organisation of Public Realm maintenance was to maintain service at the level previously delivered.

During the transitional period from April to date, reviews have been undertaken across the Public Realm Programmes that will deliver efficiencies and improvements in Work Programme co-ordination, level and quality of service for example – Burial Ground Maintenance, general grass cutting & litter control alignment, maintenance of main road etc.

These reviews are being finalised at the moment in the context of re-organising work programmes and the preparation of budget projections for 2014.

The Council's Litter Management Service is organised under a number service areas –

Town/Village Cleaning Programme

A daily cleaning service by handcart & pedestrian sweepers from Monday to Friday is in place in Tallaght, Rathfarnham, Templeogue, Rathcoole, Clondalkin, Lucan and Palmerston as well as at Walkinstown roundabout. Detailed schedules for the cleaning of the villages have been available on the Council's Area Maintenance Schedule since last year. These Schedules are being reviewed at the moment and will be updated in the coming weeks.

The updated schedules will show improvements possible with the greater flexibility now available which allows more effective deployment of machinery and staff resources – for example – pedestrian sweepers are now being shared across all of the villages maximising time in use for the machinery.

Litter Bin Service

A daily collection service is provided from Monday to Friday that programmes all circa 600 litter bins to be inspected and serviced each day. A number of issues have arisen during the transitional period and a number of changes are in the process that will help to ensure that these issues do not occur again – including timing of collections, location and frequency of service of bins etc.

General Cleansing Programme

This programme of work under this heading includes routine elements (inspection and cleaning at approx 30 illegal dumping sites, bring banks, community clean up collections, litter picking, additional town/village cleaning etc) and non routine elements (illegal dumping complaints, referrals from litter wardens etc)

Management & Supervision

Environmental Maintenance Work is programmed and assigned through a central Schedule Management System which has been developed specifically for this purpose.

This system allows local supervisors and line managers to control and co-ordinate resources in a manner and to a degree that was not possible before and provides the ability to plan, schedule and gather data on all jobs being undertaken within the programme. The system is beginning to provide extremely detailed information on performance that will inform continuing review of the programmes.

Supervisors are now able to gather and share information that highlights areas of performance that need to be addressed and improved. The transitional phase of the re-organisation has brought about a shift of focus for supervision and management as staff adjust to a new way of working. The impact of the changes is feeding into reviews of all of the Environmental Maintenance Services and will start become more apparent through improvements to service over the coming months.

The schedule of works can be viewed by anyone who visits the Council's website at sdcc.ie under the Quick Links - Your Area's Maintenance Schedule section.