COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, January 09, 2017

QUESTION NO.6

QUESTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

To ask the Chief Executive for a report on the performance of the Council's leaf sweeping contracted operation over recent months, noting there have a been a large number of complaints in relation to estates not being swept?

REPLY:

Leaf removal is one of the services provided to the Council by Oxigen Environmental Ltd under the terms of the road sweeping contract.  The service is provided over a 5 month period commencing on September 1st and ending on January 31st.  The system in place for this is one whereby requests for leaf removal which are received from customers and from elected representatives are referred to Oxigen for attention.  In an estate or on a main road where no request has been received for leaf removal then such an area will be cleaned as normal, including removal of leaves, when the area is next due to be swept on the contractor's schedule which is at a frequency of monthly for main roads and quarterly for housing estates.

In 2016 to date a total of 507 requests for removal of leaves have been received, all of these were referred to Oxigen and all have now been confirmed by Oxigen as having been completed by them.  The average time of response after receipt of the request has been 2 days.  In 2014 the number of leaf removal requests received was 437 with an average response time of 4 to 5 days, and in 2015 a total of 399 requests were received also with an average response time of 4 to 5 days.    These statistics indicate that Oxigen have dealt with an increased number of requests in 2016 when compared with the past 2 years, and that these have been responded to much more quickly than in previous years. 

The customer contact system has been examined in relation to leaf removal requests and while it contains details of the large number of requests for the leaf removal service which have been received there is no evidence in the system of complaints that the service is not being delivered.  As noted above the provision of this service continues to the end of January and it is expected that further requests for service will be received in the new year.  The provision of the service will be monitored closely during that time.