The motion was moved by Councillor Michael Bull and seconded by Councillor Linda Taylor

The Labour amendment, as set out in item 23 was moved by Councillor Ross Garrod and seconded by Councillor Judy Saunders.

Councillor Mary Jane Jeanes also spoke on the item.

The Labour amendment was then put to the vote and was carried – votes in favour 33, and votes against 21 with 4 abstention.

The substantive resolution was agreed.

RESOLVED:

Council notes that under the previous Conservative administration official government data showed that Merton was the dirtiest borough in London.  Since 2010 however, the government’s figures show that litter and detritus on Merton’s streets has reduced significantly due to a more targeted approach. 

However, this Council recognises that whilst satisfaction with street cleaning is consistently high, people littering the borough’s streets is clearly a top concern for some residents, according to the latest Annual Residents’ Survey. With council tax now receding as a concern due to the council’s five year council tax freeze, over a third of residents now cite litter and dirt in the streets as their primary concern, which is a 10% increase over the last 2 years and the highest level for a decade where council tax and crime were consistently the biggest concerns.

This Council therefore welcomes the council’s zero tolerance approach to litter and the Love Your Street campaign which is a comprehensive programme of initiatives and includes various clean up events arranged in the borough – both by the council and other community organisations and representatives - including as part of the recent Community Clear Up Day 2015, and pays tribute to the on going efforts of local campaigning groups, including Sustainable Merton and Merton Matters, who – together with many other local residents – are working in partnership with the council in addressing the problem of people dropping litter in the borough.

This Council notes that:

•        The council’s zero tolerance approach to litter has included using specialist environmental enforcement officers to fine people who drop litter and cigarette butts in our town centres.  Whilst in 2009/10 just 139 fixed penalty notices for littering were issued by the council this has risen to over 4,000 fixed penalty notices issued in 2014/15 to people who drop litter in our streets, with the service extended to parks and green spaces during the busy summer months; 

•        The council has invested in more productive and efficient street cleaning equipment including the new Glutton machines being operated across the borough and is introducing an improved approach to mechanical sweeping across the borough, particularly in cleansing hot spot areas;

•        The budget for a Sunday street cleaning service in Merton’s town centres has not been reduced despite the significant cuts to the council’s funding from central government;

•        The overall number of street cleaners employed in Merton has reduced from 112 in 2010 to 103 today, as a result of the council adopting a more efficient way of working as part of the LEAN approach to making our services more intelligence led. Over the same period there has been a significant increase in the number of traffic wardens employed due to an increase in residents who want controlled parking zones on their streets which the council is under a duty to enforce where this is the will of the majority of residents;.

•        As a result of the need to find savings of £32m due to government cuts to our funding, a further 7 street cleaning staff are due to be cut in 2016-17 as part of the Business Plan 2015-19, but, with the decision to work with our neighbouring South London boroughs in order to engage an external firm to deliver these services on our behalf in the future, it is expected that the council will be able to save at least £1m whilst continuing to deliver the same standard of service to our residents;

•        Dog waste bins are also set to be removed from pavements in 2016-17 and with significantly more residents asked in the latest Annual Residents’ Survey satisfied with the way in which Merton Council deals with dog fouling, we continue to improve this service by moving to a more efficient and effective “any bin will do” approach which has been supported by the Sustainable Communities Scrutiny Panel;

•        According to a recent Freedom of Information request, 21,700 people felt it necessary to contact the Council about street scene and waste issues last year, and we welcome this and have expanded the ways in which residents can contact us, including using our new smartphone app, LoveCleanStreets ; and

•        Concerns are consistently being raised with councillors as we rely on residents to be our eyes and ears to identify fly tips or where there is a build up of litter, and the Council’s stated policy to ‘sweep every road once a week, twice if required’ whilst ‘town centres and main shopping parades should be swept daily Monday to Saturday’ continues to be our policy, despite the significant increase in littering across the country as a whole which we need to respond to without any increase in funding and indeed with the opposite, a significant cut in our funding from central government.  Nonetheless, whilst average levels of satisfaction with street cleaning for London have reduced, Merton’s have increased..

Furthermore, this Council notes that the level of missed waste collections continues to stand at just 0.05%, but that nonetheless it is accepted that the refuse receptacles currently in use are not fit for purpose, with black sacks being torn apart by foxes and refuse in the recycling receptacles being blown about by the wind.  The Tidy Britain Group’s analysis of our street litter found that 50% is as a result of our black sack and box collection regimes.  Council therefore warmly welcomes the wheeled bin pilot in parts of Lavender ward and looks forward to assessing the results, noting that preliminary results show a 20% improvement in street cleanliness.

This Council therefore resolves to call on Cabinet to:

a)    Look in detail at the results of the pilot and Scrutiny’s deliberations into the potential benefits and/or disbenefits of a wheeled bin service, bearing in mind the need for any changes to offer value for money and cleaner streets;

b)    Continue to strenuously enforce fixed penalty notices for the minority of people who litter our streets;

c)     Continue to sweep the borough’s streets according to the agreed policy in line with the resources allocated as part of successive Business Plans agreed by full council;

d)    Continue with the same level of Sunday street cleaning service in Merton’s town centres as has been part of the agreed budget for a number of years;

e)    Seek to identify additional efficiency savings over the coming months in order the achieve the total £32m of cuts required across the council as a result of the reduction in our funding from central government and where possible and in line with the July principles to protect Merton’s street cleaning service by achieving economies of scale by working with our neighbouring boroughs via the South London Waste Partnership environmental services procurement;;

f)      Continue to regularly review the training and monitoring systems in place for frontline street cleaning staff to ensure that the Council’s stated policies and agreed service levels continue to be delivered on the ground;

g)    Continue to work as part of the borough-wide, cross party anti-litter campaign Love your Street as proposed by the council and the Merton Matters campaign group in order to discourage people from littering our streets;

h)    Continue to strenuously enforce fixed penalty notices for the minority of people who litter our streets; and

i)       In line with the budget agreed, continue to ensure that road gutters/gullies, which residents frequently complain remain filled with litter and dead leaves, are cleared on a regular basis.