Forum Topic

Street Cleaning (or not)

99% clean streets? Not where I live. The cleaners almost always come either before collection or the next day (if they attend at all) and I've never seen a broom in any of their hands.

Persida Thomas ● 4723d27 Comments

Eeurgh!  I didn't proof read properly.  The question was addressed to Gerry and should have said "your" not "our" house no.There's a sentence in there that doesn't make sense what I was trying to say was that since the subsequent bag had gone AWOL I had returned to using the original one.  When we first got these they came with a little note advising us not to leave them in the sun - I don't think that they do now.

Philippa Bond ● 4314d

Coincidentally I lost my old and decrepid white Plastics bag the same week as you but I had been using it thinking to myself "just one more week" for quite a long time.  The lid had completely disintegrated but the rest of it was OK.  I had actually replaced it over a year ago after it went missing.  It must have been missing for the best part of a year but because I hadn't numbered the next one (the subsequent one has gone AWOL).It seems that there are quite a few people who just can't be bothered to get their own...  I've provided a couple for people who obviously needed them but there is a limit!I wondered if the garden waste ones have "London Borough of Ealing" printed on them because I reckon that any containers that are not marked up like that are more likely to move around and taken without conscience.

Philippa Bond ● 4314d

Ha ha that's just what they want you to do.  The sharp end of the wedge. It isn't true that wheelie don't go missing though:http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Missing-Exeter-City-Council-wheelie-bin-Hungary/story-18402125-detail/story.html Really irritating though Gerry. How often do you fill a bag and could you come to some mutual arrangement with a neighbour instead?  (I know you've given up your car.)

Philippa Bond ● 4321d

Gerry - as you pay for the service I think you can request a wheelie-bin. We've had ours for a couple of years and no-one has pinched it!

John Walker ● 4321d

The garden rubbish collection recently has managed to lose three green garden rubbish bags of ours, all clearly marked with our house number. Most annoying - we've only got one left. The refuse collecting men seldom leave the emptied bags in the appropriate front gardens after emptying them and sometimes the wind blows them away. And sometimes neighbours forget to return any misplaced ones back to their righful owner's house.

Gerry Tan ● 4321d

Oh I agree that there are a lot of elders who probably don't have the internet but hardly anybody nowadays has no phone at all.  Their children and grandchildren are probably using the internet and smartphones and can give a hand in finding information should they need and ask for it.However I don't think the majority of people leaving their rubbish and recycling out on the wrong days are going to be elderly ones without access to the internet!

Philippa Bond ● 4347d

The assumption that most people have internet access is a badly distorted myth caused by a rather poor government statistic.This was shown up when 90% of those who applied for tickets for the Olympic torch visit were under 45.The internet access statistic related to those who have access via a land line or a cable network. However it does not relate to those who actually have a connection account active.A huge number of people over 55 do not have computer skills and affordable internet access. The fast increase in mild dementure amongst the 60-80 group impedes computer skills rapidly.It is totally wrong to ostracise a whole belt of society simply because they do not or cannot have internet/computer competency.It will be at least 20 more years before that can be the norm and still we will have many who enter senior years who will no longer be able to retain their existing skills with technology for a range of age related ailments from eyesight and arthritis to shaking hands and dementure.For a great many the telephone will be a key option.

Anthony Waller ● 4347d

Phillippa, that's quite a big assumption on your part re the elders.Probably a good idea to check the stats with old age charities before being so sure as to how many have access to the internet.And what about all the older foreigners? How IT savvy are they?

George Knox ● 4348d

:(  And there are still people who have managed to put their rubbish out on the wrong day.There must be very few people nowadays without access to the internet.  So many people are now accessing it via their mobiles.  So for people who don't have it there are friends, neighbours, parents, children and friends who do and can be asked.  The problem seems to be that many can't be a**ed which is a great shame.

Philippa Bond ● 4348d

It's also the lack of 'joined up thinking' as well Phil.No one obviously told the street sweeper (lovely chap that he is) and the automated sweeper operator that the refuse and recycling collections were a day later this week.The street has been well-swept but will now be covered in spilt rubbish after the 'non-broom capable' refuse and recycling collections tomorrow.

Nigel Brooks ● 4349d

Local Conservatives have put cleaning at the top of our pledge card.  This is the issue most commonly raised with us on the doorstep.  We cleaned up the Borough in 2006 and now we need to clean up the Borough again.  Since Labour appointed Enterprise to take over the cleaning contract two years ago in April 2012 cleaning has been broken.  It has been broken for two years and is still not fixed.  The facts are clear.  In the last full year before the previous contractor May Gurney gave up the contract they achieved a first time cleaning rate to the required standard of 88% on average.  You might have expected them to slaken off at some point knowing that they had lost the contract, but no, they did a great job until the end.  Amey/Enterprise has on average, over two years, across the whole borough left 29% of the Borough’s streets unacceptably dirty.  After two years they are just shy of the level consistently achieved by their predecessors and they are still nowhere near the required service level laid down in the contract.  The picture with missed collections has been equally dire.  In the year before May Gurney lost the contract they managed to get missed collections down to an average of 972 per month.  The average over the last two years has been 3,617, almost 4 times as many.  Amey/Enterprise has never been able to get missed collections below 2,000 per month.  Over two years an additional 60,000 calls have been made to the council to report missed collections.  To this day when you dial the council’s help desk you still get an autoresponder that says “Press 1 for a missed collection”. The Conservatives know how to clean up the Borough.  We did it before.  When we took over in 2006 Ealing wasn't just dirty - it was the dirtiest London borough.

Phil Taylor ● 4349d

Yes of course I am.Phil

Phil Taylor ● 4708d

I've read with interest the comments of Cllr Mahfouz, and despite the fact that he attempts to gloss over this problem by using selective figures, it is plainly obvious that the cleanliness of the streets has gone down since Enterprise took over the contract. I refer to Vlod's analysis. His conclusions are so obvious that Cllr Mahfouz really should take a look and admit that this contractor simply cannot cope. My street was totally missed again this week, no sign of any street cleaning whatsoever, with litter flying about the whole street in the high winds we had, and it will probably stay like that until next week. It's disgusting, and I am sick to death of the politicians using whichever figure they want to make themselves look good. I heard today that some council leaders are on a salary in excess of a quarter of a million pounds a year (perhaps not in Ealing) and yet public sector staff have not had a pay rise in three years. This is far less than the Prime Minister earns(?!) but councils across the land are making massive cuts to services. I wonder if this is could be a reason why  these missed collections and missed cleaning of the streets are happening so much now. Are they using the money saved from the cuts to pay their bosses ridiculous amounts? Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Persida Thomas ● 4708d

Phil, can you confirm that you are @philjvtaylor on Twitter ?

Bud Richards ● 4709d

I have finally got hold of the missed collections numbers from the council, see: http://www.ealingtoday.co.uk/default.asp?section=info&link=http://nnet-server.com/server/common/earubbishcomplaints001.htmInstead of just apologising and spelling out what steps the administration is taking to fix things the Labour portfolio holder Bassam Mahfouz throws a magnificent hissy fit.  For the record I sent the complete data to the editor of Ealingtoday.co.uk and she made up her mind about the story that she wrote.  She didn't buy the council's line that the customers are mistaken when they take the trouble to pick up the phone to complain.  Cllr Mahfouz has clearly never been near manufacturing nor heard of Six Sigma or he wouldn't think that a defect rate of 0.3% was acceptable.  His 0.3% defect rate translates into 3,000 people a month calling the council to report a missed collection after a year of the new Enterprise contract.  Mahfouz says: "We have been totally open and honest" but I asked the council to tell me about missed collections on 3rd April and they responded on 1st May.  It isn't open and honest to keep people waiting 4 weeks to hear some very basic numbers.

Phil Taylor ● 4709d

Bank Holiday Weekend:  You could photograph your rubbish strewn street where the residents just dump stuff outside unprotected before they go away and put the photo through the offending letterbox(es).  They ought at least to know that their unsociable behaviour has been noticed.

Philippa Bond ● 4716d

You just have to take a walk down the street on dustbin day to see who is doing this. (That is if they haven't already made themselves known to the whole neighbourhood by putting their rubbish out far too early for the rest of us to walk through.) I'd rather get the most from my Council Tax by using the good facilities that the Council's provides for this.If they've newly moved in then perhaps you could offer to order them a green bin etc or to contact the Recycling Department for them. 

Philippa Bond ● 4717d

I agree that we need street cleaners after the recycling and rubbish collections have been done as the collection people do seem to fling some of the recycling about onto the streets, but I also think that it would help if some residents took more care in how they clean, sort and organise their recycling. I don't understand people who put all sorts of food waste and un-rinsed items in their general black bag waste and wonder why a hungry fox has ripped it to shreds and deposited it all over the streets the next morning. It's just lazy.

Daniele Price ● 4717d

I popped out for stroll earlier today around High Lane and saw the street 'cleaner' rabbiting away on his mobile phone in a language I didn't recognize  picking up the the odd bit of litter but leaving loads behind. I don't think his heart was in it.The old cleaner used to be very thorough.I think they need to stick a bin near the white flats at the top of High Lane as by the looks of it lots of people eat their fast food or drink their beer and just sling the packaging and cans.

John Walker ● 4717d

Can't fault the waste collection service - they seem to do the rubbish collecting well.  The only thing I've noticed is that the collection vehicles seem to be an enormous size these days, such that there's often a hold up of traffic behind them as they progress slowly from house to house. Are they new contractors now?

Gerry Tan ● 4718d

This month the council's officers released a set of cleaning statistics to me that cover the last year of the old May Gurney cleaning contract and the first year of the new Enterprise one.  The numbers are quite startling.  Under the old contract, on average, over the whole year 88% of streets were cleaned right first time up to the required Grade A standard.  12% were unacceptably dirty.  Under the Enterprise contract, on average, over the whole year only 70% of streets were cleaned right first time up to the required Grade A standard.  30% were unacceptably dirty.  If you think our streets are dirtier than they were then you are right.

Phil Taylor ● 4719d

It’s difficult to make complete sense of the figures in the way they are presented but here’s what I think they mean.On average over the year 69.6% of streets inspected met the standard upon inspection. After the contractor was given an opportunity to rectify the situation, that average increased in 82.1%. Things have been improving, and in the most recent three months, 78.3% of streets inspected met the standard on inspection and 98.7% met them after contractor rectification. These figures only apply to streets inspected and one presumes there is no data on streets that were not inspected. Across the year on average 21.1% of street cleaning was inspected. In the most recent three months, 20.4% of streets were inspected, so inspection rates have remained steady – and c80% of street cleaning goes unchecked. We don’t know what performance has been in streets not inspected but – assuming the contractor does not know in advance what streets are to be inspected and thus cannot attempt to concentrate efforts to improve the figures – it is reasonable to assume that performance in non-inspected streets has been at the levels found in inspected streets, but no rectification has taken place. So, taking account of rectification of inspected streets, the percentage of all borough streets meeting the standard is probably c72.2% for the year and c82.5% for the most recent three months.Enterprise do not seem to be able to achieve more than 80% of the standard without the opportunity to rectify after inspection. Under the old contract, on average, over the whole year 88% of streets were cleaned first time up to the required standard. The easiest way to improve performance would be for the Council to inspect more street cleaning, although the Council shouldn’t be having to chase the contractor to do its job properly.It would be interesting to know what payment deductions have been made for Enterprise’s poor performance (its target performance is 95%). Or are deductions only made after taking account of rectification work?

Vlod Barchuk ● 4722d

Also works well in our enclave of Ealing ie. area bounded by Northfield Ave, Kingsdown Ave, Culmington and Elers Roads.

Gerry Tan ● 4722d

Works beautifully on our road.

Bob Knight ● 4722d

We normally get the 'sweeper' after the black bag collection and before the recycling run which, of course, spill loads of recycling into the street. but the 'sweeper' has been and gone...............it's not rocket science but seemingly beyond the bandwidth of Mahfouz and those tho 'manage' the contract to comprehend.

Nigel Brooks ● 4723d

I know. A friend tells me that she has complained about that and nothing different ever seems to happen. Mind you, at least you had them on the same day!

Persida Thomas ● 4723d

Our streets were litter picked this morning BEFORE Enterprise came to collect the rubbish!This doesn't make any sense!

Jean F Fernandez ● 4723d