Agenda item

Councillor Bob Bushell, Portfolio Holder for Remarkable Place:

 

a)    presented a report to Performance Scrutiny Committee covering the following main points:

 

-       Allotments – across all allotment sites, occupancy had remained high, with the occupancy level of lettable allotment plots hovering consistently around 97%.

 

-       Equipped Play Areas – the Council continued to maintain 28 equipped play areas across the city, ensuring that British Standards were maintained at all times for installation, inspections and maintenance.

 

-       Parks and Open Spaces – three Green Flag Awards had been achieved in 2020.

 

-       Boultham Park – the main restoration of Boultham Park was completed in 2019 but there were one or two outstanding tasks to finish before the project could officially be declared at closed. These were planned for 2020 and were delayed due to Covid-19 and were planned to be completed during 2021.

 

-       Hartsholme Country Park and Camp Site – Covid-19 impacts had taken a toll on Hartsholme in a way that had not been seen at other parks. Not only had visitor numbers risen so high that significant additional damage had been seen to pathways and general infrastructure, but it had been necessary to close the Visitor Centre and Caravan/Camp Site in line with government guidance.

 

-       Commons – further and ongoing work was hoped to take place to refresh the Commons Management Plan and associated work programme, but this was subject to progress on other work streams and the availability of suitable staff.

 

-       Arboriculture – in 2020 the Council dealt with 1094 tree ‘cases’, some of which were small, but many were larger complex cases in relation to planning issues

 

-       Travellers – last year saw four unauthorised encampments on parks (2 on the South Common, 1 at the Lawn and 1 at Skellingthorpe Field). Whilst the number was half that of the previous year, the time stayed was much longer in some cases due to lockdown.

 

-       Street Scene – this included the provision and maintenance of street name plates, bus shelters and art installations. The city currently had 111 bus shelters (66 Adshell/ 45 City Council) and 16 art installations of varying sizes.

 

-       Waste/Recycling – the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership had been active this year in the delivery of the action plan underpinning the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy for Lincolnshire. This document prioritised the work which drove change for waste services across the country and ensured a joined-up approach was taken, so reducing any risks of confusion.

 

Domestic general (residual) waste disposed of had increased by around 9.9%, with the average household disposing of an average 137kg per quarter, compared with 125kg in the previous year.

 

The number of residents using the garden waste service was 15,415 at the end of March 2020, compared with 15,841 the previous year.

 

-       Street Cleansing – Fly tipping continued to be an issue this year in certain areas of the city. The Sincil Bank area had been the area of highest demand, although fly tipping had become an increasingly significant problem nationally under lockdown

 

-       Public Toilets – this service had again achieved high standards for those facilities entered into the Loo of the Year Awards, with both the Bus Station and Castle Square facilities being awarded gold standard.

 

-       Licensing – the Licensing Team had continued to provided services to our customers throughout the pandemic, adapting to how we responded to enquiries and how the service was delivered.

 

-       Food, Health and Safety Team – as well as continuing to protect Public Health by dealing with food and health and safety related matters, the team had been responsible for Covid-19 related matters in the following areas:

 

o   giving advice and guidance to businesses to make sure that they were Covid-19 secure

o   enforcing non-compliance

o   management and deployment, including training of Covid-19 ambassadors

o   working with Public Health England and Public Health Lincolnshire on outbreak management

o   supporting community testing

o   supporting and advising colleagues in other departments within the Council

 

-       Climate Change – since the Council agreed a motion declaring a Climate and Environmental Emergency in 2019 work had taken place with the Lincoln Climate Commission and had published the Lincoln Roadmap to net zero carbon.

 

b)    invited members’ questions and comments.

Question: Members commented that it was nice to see more wildflowers and asked whether more publicity could be done on this.

 

Response: Some publicity had been done around this with an interview taking place on a breakfast show. It was commented that the public were more precious about nature due to the pandemic.

 

Question: Member were interested in the footfall for play areas.

 

Response: Play parks had been well used during the pandemic as some people do not have gardens. There was no data on actual footfall but the maintenance for the site had increased.

 

Question: Members wanted to raise that there were not enough baby changing facilities in the city and asked if the Council could encourage businesses to become more child friendly.

 

Response: Yes, there did need to be more changing facilities within the city. Officers were unsure at this stage whether there would be baby changing facilities at the Central Market as this was still going through the planning process.

 

Question: Members asked how much fly tipping had cost the Council.

 

Response: It was hard to give a definitive answer, but it was around £10k a year. However, it was commented that this figure could be misleading as there were other fly-tipping incidents that were dealt with as part of the contract and not charged for.

 

Question: Members asked whether the fly-tipping hotspots were able to be covered by CCTV.

 

Response: CCTV was being utilised where it could. It was hoped that when the Household Waste Recycling Centre reopened that the fly-tipping would reduce.

 

Question: Members asked how the derelict buildings at Hartsholme Country Park were being made secure.

 

Response: These building would be looked at in the future and we had a duty of care in the meantime.

 

Question: Members asked if it was easy to volunteer.

 

Response: Making it easier to volunteer was being looked at as there were a lot of people that offer up their services. A lot of volunteers come from people via community payback.

 

Question: Members asked whether trees were replaced like for like once one had been removed.

 

Response: The Council always plants more trees than what had been removed.

 

Question: Members asked why officers did not expect a drop in demand for allotment sites.

 

Response: There was currently a waiting list for allotments so as soon as one came available it could be let out.

 

Question: Members asked why Lincoln was the most complex in the county when it came to recycling cardboard and paper.

 

Response: The main complexity was storage of the bins in densely populated areas.

 

Question: Members asked why the percentage of waste that was composted had decreased significantly.

 

Response: Officers explained that this was a national picture and the government objective was to increase this to 60%. The reason for the decrease could be owing to contamination.

 

Question: Members asked whether the Council was working with stallholders at the Christmas Market regarding being plastic free.

 

Response: We are trying to reduce single use plastics and the Council continued to encourage businesses to steer away from single use plastics.

 

Question: Members asked whether there was a policy for the maintenance of bus shelters, as they felt that if they were well maintained it may encourage more people to use buses as their preferred mode of transport.

 

Response: There were financial issues regarding the maintenance of bus shelters.

 

Question: Members asked what education would be offered for recycling.

 

Response: The paper and cardboard recycling was not coming to Lincoln until 2024 so the Council would learn from other authorities. Lincolnshire County Council was to employ a team to educate and support residents.

 

Question: Members asked whether anything was taking place to educate students on recycling.

 

Response: People should be encouraged to take responsibility and to be accountable for their own recycling. Any communication that was released by the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership would also be released via the City Council’s Communications Team.

 

Question: Members asked when the Carbonisation Policy would be released.

 

Response: Officers were to find out and let the Committee know.

 

Question: Members asked whether the zero-carbon emissions standard included contractors.

 

Response: We were working with contractors to try and get them to use electric cars/hedge trimmers.

 

Question: Members queried what the Council was doing to support organisations to achieve zero-carbon emissions.

 

Response: It was a collective responsibility and this was the work of the Climate Commission.

 

Question: Members asked in regard to arboriculture, what pressures insurance companies were applying.

 

Response: The Council was required to ensure trees were safe and were inspected within a five-years.

 

Question: Members commented that there were 57 electric charging points and queried where the Council scored among the population.

 

Response: This figure was above average and a consultation was underway on the installation of more charging points.