Decision details

(Cabinet Member with Special Responsibility Councillor Smith)

 

Cabinet received a report from the Head of Environmental Services which provided members with a number of proposals as to how some aspects of the District’s public realm could be best maintained.

 

The options, options analysis, including risk assessment and officer preferred option, were set out in the report as follows:

 

The outline report was provided to allow Cabinet to consider at an early stage what options existed with regard to maintaining the public realm. Cabinet were requested to consider each of the proposals and if required add further. This would provide officers with the direction required to develop the relevant parts of the corporate plan, for later consideration by Members.

For the purpose of the report ‘the public realm’ was defined as any publicly owned streets, pathways, parks, publicly accessible open spaces. The main activities that had an impact on the public realm for the purposes of this report were-

·         Street cleansing

·         Grounds maintenance

·         Planning

·         Street nameplate management

 

Street Cleansing / Grounds maintenance- Following an earlier organisational restructure and comprehensive review of service provision these two functional areas were delivered through the same line management structure. This merging of the functions had resulted in improved efficiency and had led to higher standards of service delivery.

 

 

Currently a situation existed in Williamson Park where some cleansing and grounds maintenance functions were provided directly by Environmental Services and some by Williamson Park staff. Greater efficiencies could potentially be generated through reviewing how maintenance in the park could be best delivered.

 

 

Working with other Partners- The overall appearance and perception of the public realm could clearly be improved by working closely with other partners.  The County Council has a huge impact on the management and maintenance of the District’s public realm and intend to use the proposed 3 Tier Forum as the main way of consulting with stakeholders and thus developing the commissioning plan.  From a City Council perspective feeding into the development of this plan provides a real opportunity to put forward public realm priorities within the District.

 

The Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee has been requested to consider the opportunities the commissioning approach provides and make recommendations to Cabinet in the future.

 

 

In addition the County Council were also working with City Council officers on a number of community led projects within the District. These were attached at Appendix 2 to the report.

 

 

The Council’s use of the Community Payback scheme to improve the appearance of the District has to date worked well. Currently the Council contributed £24,000 to the Probation Service to part fund the cost of a Probation Service supervisor, vehicle and tools. In turn the Probation Service undertakes a list of environmental works provided by the Council.

 

 

The Council’s Street Pride initiative has been a further success in terms of working with partners and improving the appearance of the District. A suggested refinement for 2012/13 is that calling for streets to be nominated we also call for areas of open space to be nominated.

 

 

Street Name Plates- The City Council has a statutory duty to provide and maintain street name plates within the whole of the District. The annual budget provided for this service was £13,200. In order to improve the experience for both residents and visitors to our City Centre work has taken place to assess the state of the existing signage in Lancaster City centre. To ensure that the City Centre is clearly signed with name plates that are appropriate to a conservation area would require a one off amount of £16,000 to cover the cost of either repainting or replacing. In addition a further £4,000 would be required to provide directional signage to places to visit (eg VIC, Roman Baths). The financial implication section of the report showed that Phase 1 could be funded within existing budgets through a virement that could be agreed by Cabinet.

 

Development led improvement- Many of the environmental issues that the Council deals with are symptoms of bigger and more expensive problems related to existing infrastructure. As an example some parts of the City Centre are very difficult to cleanse because of types of surface, street furniture etc. The Square Routes project in the City Centre and the Morecambe Action Plan present an ideal opportunity to ensure that ongoing maintenance is considered at the design stage. The proposals that develop from these are likely to have positive implications for the management and maintenance of the public realm in Lancaster and Morecambe. The plans when delivered have had the input of managers who will be responsible for maintaining them and as such there is confidence that this development will lead to sustained improvements. In the past this joined up approach has not always happened and developments have taken place without full consideration of the future maintenance or consideration of how section 106 monies could be best used.

 

 

Recreational Facilities- the Council has in place a strategy for playground provision that has seen significant improvements to play provision within the District and this approach has been successful at attracting external funding. Feedback suggests that whilst play provision for younger children is catered for there could be more play facilities for teenagers. At this stage the evidence for this is largely anecdotal and furthermore planning of provision of facilities for teenagers needs to take into account what teenagers would actually want and the views of surrounding communities.

 

 

PCSOs- Cabinet had requested further information on the position with regards to funding of PCSOs in 2012/13 and clearly PCSOs do make a contribution towards maintenance of the public realm.

In 2011 The Home Office agreed that they would for the next two years continue to provide the 2/3 funding that they currently contribute towards PCSOs if someone else contributed the other 1/3. No further information is available as to the detail of PCSO funding beyond April 2013.  For 2011/12 the LDLSP has provided the majority of the contribution to 9 PCSOs within this District. At this stage it seems unlikely that the LDLSP will have the funding to able to make this contribution in 2012/13.

 

In order to maintain the level of PCSOs currently funded by the LDLSP a contribution of £99,000 would be required in 2012/13.

 

 

 

Councillor Smith proposed, seconded by Councillor Hanson:-

 

“That the recommendations, as set out in the report, be approved.”

 

Councillors then voted:-

 

Resolved unanimously:

 

(1)                    That Cabinet notes and approves the implications of improving grounds maintenance provision and increasing cleansing provision in Morecambe, in line with seasonal demands. And that Phase 1 of the grounds maintenance programme is funded through a virement, in this financial year, from within environmental services budgets

(2)                    That officers review how the maintenance of Williamson Park is delivered and bring back recommendations to Cabinet.

(3)                    That following the assessment and recommendations of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Cabinet considers how the County Council’s commissioning plan approach can be best developed.

(4)                    That where required the City Council provides officer time to work with the County Council and community groups to help deliver a number of community led projects within the District.

(5)                    That the City Council continues to work in partnership with the Probation Service and that a list of environmental improvement works for 2012/13 is developed by officers and agreed with the relevant Cabinet portfolio holder.

(6)                    That in preparing the Street Pride programme for 2012/13 officers also ask for areas of open space to be nominated.

(7)                    That officers review current recreational provision for teenagers and bring a further report back to Cabinet. Because of the timescales involved it is expected any financial implications would need to be considered as part of the 2013/14 budget.

(8)                    That the scheme to improve street names plates and directional signs within Lancaster City Centre is delivered in this financial year through a virement from within environmental services budgets.

(9)                    That as a principle development is seen as an opportunity to improve the public realm and that full account is taken of the ongoing maintenance implications of development.

(10)                That Cabinet notes the information with regard to PCSOs and confirms that consideration should be given to the funding aspect as part of the development of the 2012/13 budget.

 

Officers responsible for effecting the decision:

 

Head of Environmental Services

 

Reasons for making the decision:

 

The proposals for the maintenance of the public realm are in line with the Corporate Plan: and Council priorities:

·         Improving the attractiveness, accessibility and enjoyment of the district’s parks and open spaces for visitors.

·         Working with partners to deliver services that keep the streets clean and safe

·         Delivering responsive and efficient statutory services

·         Delivering City and County Council ‘public realm’ services, making most efficient use of resources and achieving the aim of keeping the streets clean and maintained.

The decision allows Cabinet to consider at an early stage what options exist with regard to maintaining the public realm and provide officers with the direction required to develop them.  In particular delivery of Phase 1 required a decision at this point of the year.