Agenda item

Councillor Fay Smith, Portfolio Holder for Environmental Services and Public Protection, presented an annual report on the work of her portfolio and highlighted the activity and performance within her portfolio, particularly in relation to the following:

Waste and recycling

Contamination continued to be a big issue for the Council’s waste collection and recycling performance but it was reported that the authority was working closely with the County Council and other District Councils in Lincolnshire to try and address this issue. A trial was taking place in South Kesteven District Council involving the recycling of food waste, following a visit to Peterborough City Council where this had been successful in view of the fact that food waste was one of the largest contaminants of recyclable waste. It was hoped that this trial would be successful and could then be implemented more widely across the county, including in the city of Lincoln. Less than 5% of waste ended up in landfill, with any waste sent to the energy from waste plant being turned into energy. 3 million collections at over 45,000 properties in the city took place every year, which involved a tremendous amount of work.

Cleansing

The Council cleaned 200 miles of streets as part of the Council’s street cleansing programme.

Fly-tipping continued to become problematic in the city, particularly in respect of abandoned vehicles. 179 reports of abandoned vehicles had been received this year which took up a significant proportion of officer time.

New multi-use litter bins were due to be rolled out across the city, which could be used for both litter and dog waste.

Public toilets

The new public toilet facilities at the Central Bus Station were managed by attendants employed to ensure that they were maintained to a high standard. Attendants had already dealt with an number of issues.

Positive feedback had been received in relation to the accessible toilet at the Central Bus Station, supplemented by a full changing places facility. Unlimited access to this facility could be obtained via an electronic card which incurred a one-off charge of £5. The electronic nature of the card made it easier to manage and re-issue should it be lost or stolen.

CCTV

£400,000 had been invested in new state of the art CCTV system for the city, with the quality of the images supplied by the cameras being of exceptionally high quality. They were also more flexible in their use and cameras could be deployed to other areas of the city to certain hotspots that may require the assistance of surveillance.

Further updates were provided in the report on the following:

·         public protection and anti-social behaviour;

·         licensing;

·         food safety;

·         health and safety (enforcement);

·         bereavement services;

·         carbon reduction;

·         air quality.

Councillor Ronald Hills, Leader of the Opposition, reflected on the issue of fly-tipping especially in the Sincil Bank area of the city and made the point that the more the Council collected and cleaned up fly-tipping the more people may be inclined to continue to fly-tip. He acknowledged that he did not know what the answer to addressing the problem was but the message needed to be clear that fly-tipping was not acceptable.

Councillor Smith responded by saying that this was a recognised problem. A pilot had been undertaken a couple of years ago whereby fly-tipping was not collected, except any dangerous waste, but was marked to state that the Council was aware of it. The principle behind this was that people would not continue to fly-tip if they knew that the Council was not going to collect it. Unfortunately, the fly-tipping continued and the pilot was unsuccessful. Work continued to seek to address the problem, particularly in problem areas of the city.

The report was noted.