APPLICATION FORM
Please refer to the ‘2015 Guidance for Applicants’
before completing this application form.
The application form is split over four sections. It is up to you to decide
the content and length of each section, but your application must not
exceed three pages in total (excluding the cover pages).
Please ensure that your application covers the key criteria that we are
looking for and is effectively presented. Any questions relating to your
application or the submission process should be directed to
awards@cosla.gov.uk or 0131 474 9275.
The deadline for submission of entries is 5pm on Friday 24 October 2014.
Submitting Your Application Form
Please use our online application portal to submit this application form.
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PLEASE PROVIDE SOME DETAILS ABOUT YOUR APPLICATION:
CATEGORY APPLIED
FOR
Service Innovation and Improvement
PROJECT NAME
(as you wish to see it
published)
Street Cleansing Improvement Programme
LEAD ORGANISATION
East Renfrewshire Council
DEPARTMENT/TEAM
Waste Strategy & Cleansing
John Buchanan
John Cassells
PARTICIPANT NAMES
OR PARTNER
ORGANISATIONS
CONTACT NAME
Erica Roche
CONTACT DETAILS
erica.roche@eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk 0141 577 3032
CAN WE PUBLISH THIS APPLICATION FORM ON OUR WEBSITE?
YES
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In one short paragraph please describe this project is about, what it has
achieved, and why it is delivering excellence.
Public perception of street cleanliness in East Renfrewshire was low. 2011/12 performance data showed East
Renfrewshire Council at 22nd out of 32 Scottish local authorities in the Street Cleaning Index. Benchmarking
(APSE and LEAMS) and surveys (National Scottish Household Survey and Citizens Panel), showed that although
street sweeping and litter collection was a service priority for residents, there were poor results in quality
indicators and perception. Using a combination of technology, partnership working and community
engagement, the Street Cleaning team turned this around. Early results show service outputs are improved
and service requests and complaints reduced by 47%.
PLANNING
What is your project about, and why is it important? What are you
aiming to achieve, and how does this fit with the bigger picture? Does it
tackle the issues that matter most to your community or your
organisation?
A small project team set about improving service outputs and enhancing public perception of street
cleanliness, contributing to delivering our SOA outcome ‘East Renfrewshire is a thriving, attractive and
sustainable place for residents and businesses to grow.’ Faced with reductions in budgets, efficiency savings
were also required. It was therefore imperative that the Street Cleaning Service, that had not made any
significant changes in a number of years, consider how best to use its existing resources. The team set the
following objectives:
- 20% reduction in complaints and service requests regarding street sweeping and fly-tipping
- 25% reduction in complaints and service requests regarding ‘general litter’
- 50% reduction in customer complaints regarding overflowing bins
- Improve results in street cleanliness indicator.
Street cleaning operations were based on geographical areas and along with litter bin servicing, were
delivered on a scheduled basis in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act 1990 Code of Practice
Standards on Litter. However, schedules had not been reviewed for some time resulting in street cleanliness
standards dropping, particularly in some areas. Complaints and service requests were being dealt with
promptly but no interrogation of data had been undertaken to prevent these occurring in the first place. The
team was re-active, dealing with complaints as they were reported – a less efficient practice contributing to
reduced sweeping time and high running costs. This was also impacting other key areas of work. The streetcleaning supervisor, also responsible for community engagement, was not finding sufficient time to undertake
this important preventative work. The team also recognised the benefits of working with other agencies and
planned to strengthen existing partnerships and forge new ones.
DELIVERING
How have you carried out your project? How did you ensure that this was
done effectively? What are you doing to continue to improve?
A vehicle tracking system was introduced and rigorously monitored to assess route efficiencies and workload
maximisation. While use of trackers is not itself new, the outcome showed quantifiable evidence, and justified
significant changes to routes and methods of working. Monitoring also highlighted that significant sweeping
time was being lost to reactive work and long tipping turnaround times. A review of the vehicle replacement
policy saw the standard vehicle replaced with a small skip vehicle, allowing localised tipping points for street
sweepers. By implementing a Unique bin ID system, measurable information from street litter bin collection
routes could also be gleaned and improvements made. Information relayed back from the Unique bin ID
system resulted in the litter bin service routes being adjusted to reflect priorities. For example, overflowing
bins were emptied more frequently while half full bins were serviced at a reduced frequency. In fact, 12 bins
(representing approximately 5%) were relocated as they weren’t being used at all. These changes have again
resulted in greater productivity; reduced incidences of overflowing and in turn, reduced litter.
These measures released time for more sweeping and litter removal from difficult access areas (e.g. behind
bus shelters) as routine instead of reactively, reducing the time-consuming supervision required. The street
cleaning supervisor was then able to devote more time to working with community partners, delivering
educational talks to local schools and community groups, organising or assisting with community litter picks
and holding litter surgeries. The amount of productive working time for management and all operatives has
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considerably increased and thus enabled more regular litter picking and availability for other tasks (e.g.
quicker responses to fly tipping removal).
Working in partnership with our education department, the team have delivered talks in all 24 primary
schools and 7 high schools. This Increased engagement work has inspired a number of local schools to
organise community litter picks, which have been well received by neighbours of the school campus. Two high
schools have now integrated plans for a local litter pick each term as part of their Eco-schools agenda.
Support from the Street-cleaning team has helped these schools gain their Green Flag – only awarded to
schools with litter-free grounds. Since Green flag implementation, all 32 schools have an accreditation with
FEE. At present, 32 of our schools have one or more Green flags promoting ‘good citizenship’.
Beyond schools, the team has been engaging with other community partners. A strong partnership has been
forged with one particular tenants’ and residents’ association (TRA) with support from the local councillor.
The supervisor now attends many meetings, resulting in a better understanding of the community’s needs
and concerns. The aim is to promote good environmental awareness and pride within communities. The
Street-cleaning Team, in conjunction with the group, can now focus on the areas that cause the greatest
offence. This led to a number of successful community action days. In one clean-up over 100 volunteers took
part, ranging from individuals, community council and church members and scouts.
We have also worked in partnership with private firms to make further improvements. The local McDonalds
have been regular partners in environmental improvements in the area and were first to sign a pledge to keep
outside their premises litter-free. Other local businesses are following suit and a new partnership has been
made with one of two Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in the area. These are groups of local businesses
who aim to bring about positive change through collective effort. The Clarkston BID supported the
Government’s ‘Dirty Little Secrets’ campaign at a local level by allowing advertising hoardings in vacant shop
windows and using pavement stencils. The team also supported this group to make their community clean-up
a success by providing gloves, litter-pickers, refuse sacks and were on hand to remove rubbish collected. The
street cleaning team has also supported two Friends of Parks’ groups in litter picks in the same manner.
Open door litter surgeries have been held in local libraries across the area. These sessions have been widely
advertised but are, on the whole, poorly attended. The fact that this opportunity is being given to allow
residents’ a forum to voice their views, is hopefully an indication that people are increasingly satisfied with
their local environment and irrespective of trends of use, it demonstrates openness in taking the service into
the community. Spring and summer community walkabouts also took place. This structured programme of
activity sees the street-cleaning supervisor, along with colleagues from Housing and Community Safety,
community councillors and members from TRAs and any other interested parties, getting out into the local
area to identify local issues. Outcomes from this include organisation of community clean-ups, graffiti
removal and introduction of new litter bins.
Through GRIP East Renfrewshire (Great Results in Partnership) a strong partnership now exists with the
Police, who share environmental crime information to allow better enforcement. The team also works
closely with internal partners such as Social Work, who provide workers through its Community Payback
Scheme, to typically remove litter and fly-tipping. Targeted action is bringing about noticeable improvements
in cleanliness and public perception. The most recent Citizens’ Panel survey (Nov 2013) showed 98% of
respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with street-cleaning and litter patrol in their own street.
Capitalising on the good result, the service will aim to maintain its efforts at all times.
"INNOVATION & LEADING
PRACTICE
Why is your project innovative? How is it helping to prepare for the
future? What is happening to help other organisations benefit from your
approach?
To manage litter bin collection routes more efficiently and effectively, the Street Cleaning team felt that new
technology may be useful and began exploring the marketplace. A successful funding application was made
to Zero Waste Scotland’s Litter Innovation Fund for individual bin identification and mobile barcode readers,
along with suitable software. The Council was the first to take on this project for barcodes which were
installed in March 2013. The outputs shall be monitored and fed back nationally via ZWS. Readers relayed
information in real time on where, when and how often bins were being emptied, along with details on
volumes of waste captured. Information is accessed on a web portal and allows the team to run reports on
locations, jobs complete/incomplete, jobs history and other reports defined and created as required. The use
of innovative technology has transformed the Council’s street-sweeping service. It has improved workload
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planning and justified the significant changes required. This is seen as a significant process that ensures GIS
tracking maps indicate, not only vehicle movements, but whether or not sweeping of streets occurred. This
will then aid in route planning and complaints responses. The Parks service which maintains litter bins in the
area’s parks and open spaces is keen to implement the unique bin ID system and Zero Waste Scotland is
interested in using the information relayed by the system to help give a better understanding of social litter
habits and how they differ by ACORN classification. Glasgow City Council’s Cleansing team has recently
shown interest and will be visiting us shortly with a view to applying the BIN ID system to thousands of litter
bins across the city. We are one of 5 Councils participating in the development of a new LEAMS street
monitoring standard and the lead council for developing this change on behalf of Keep Scotland Beautiful.
RESULTS & IMPACT
What impact are you having, or expect to have? How are you measuring
this, and what does this tell you? Are you delivering what you set out to
achieve?
Performance indicators are already showing significant progress. The improved service has reduced sweeping
downtime and the cost of the service is now the lowest per head of population in Scotland. After rising to
£7,327 per 1000 residents per annum in 2012/13, it dropped to £6,836 for 2013/14, representing a fall of
6.7%. This is a great achievement whilst increasing public perception of cleanliness. The table below
highlights some recent results, showing positive trends in both quality and perception measures.
Performance Indicators
Indicator
2012 results 2013 results 2014 results improvement
Street Cleaning Index
73
75
76
2pts
Total no. of complaints & service requests- 968
612
Unavailable
47% reduction
street-sweeping and fly-tipping (Jan-Sept)
No. of complaints & service requests
296
197
Unavailable
33% reduction
regarding “general litter” (Jan-Jun)
No. of overflowing bins (Jan – Jun)
85
21
Unavailable
75% reduction
Citizens panel – residents rating street
55%
61%
64%
9%
cleaning as good/very good
improvement
While there has been an overall improvement, the Citizens’ Panel survey also reported that only 12% of
respondents felt that street-cleaning and litter patrol was better than the previous year, with 77% believing it
was ‘about the same’. There remains room for improvement and the team is confident that operational
changes, and continued community engagement, will increase satisfaction with service in 2015.
Changes to the Citizens’ Panel questions has given the team more detailed information on specific areas of
the service that the public would like to see improved. For example, more than three quarters of respondents
(77%) felt that greater enforcement on those who drop litter would have an impact on street cleanliness. This
has led to an action plan which includes Community Wardens patrolling areas where complaints have been
received. Community wardens are authorised to issue Fixed Penalty Notices to those littering and it is hoped
that sharing information with the Community Safety team will increase enforcement in problem areas.
More than half of Panel members felt that ‘better education on the impacts of litter and more community
litter picks’ would improve street cleanliness. In response to this the street cleaning team will prioritise work
that empowers communities to tackle the causes of litter. Another area of work will identify sources and
prevalent types of litter to help develop meaningful anti-litter campaigns for maximum impact. The team also
recognises that public perception of poor environmental quality is affected by other issues such as vandalism
and weed growth. Working in partnership with the Police and colleagues in Community Safety and Parks will
be pivotal in improving the local environment and residents’ views and plans are in place for future
partnership working.
The target now is to become the highest performing local authority in Scotland by 2015, as per the new
national performance framework and National Scottish Household Survey. Receiving Finalist Street Cleaning
Best Performer in the 2013 APSE Best and Most Improved Performer Awards and Finalist in the 2014 APSE
Service Awards is testimony to the positive outcomes already delivered from more effective and efficient
working practices.
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Please limit your application to 3 pages or less and use font size 11or greater
NEXT STEPS
 Have you answered the criteria set out in the guidance?
 Is your application form 3 pages or less. (Anything more, including
appendices, will be automatically rejected)
 Has your application form been authorised by an appropriate person?
 Have you indicated whether you wish the application form to be
published?
 Have you provided details for someone we can contact about your
application?
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