Agenda item

The Panel will consider a report highlighting the work undertaken by the Councils ground maintenance teams.

Contact:

Maryke Woods, Group Leader – Greenspace Operational Delivery

 

 

1.    The Panel considered the report, Grounds Maintenance Current Position presented by Maryke Woods, Group Leader, Greenspace Operational Delivery, who provided an update in relations to the Grounds Maintenance Services current position, and advised the Panel that:

 

·         The service provided grounds maintenance to all parks and recreational grounds and maintained most greenspaces within Kirklees, as well as contract services to a range of clients.

·         The team was small with 70 full time employees and was supported by seasonal staff in the Summer.

·         The service offered a range of roles and an apprenticeship scheme, with 3 apprentices in training.

·         The service cut approximately 4.8km2 of grass, 35km of hedges, managed and maintained sports pitches, maintained 1,100 house gardens on behalf of homes and neighbourhoods, maintained over 5,000 locations across Kirklees and 70,000m2 of shrubbery.

·         The service offered a range of benefits which included:

o   Working with people / local groups to provide people with practical work experiences to help them back into employment.

o   6 green flag awards for primary parks and country parks.

o   Free and open accessible green spaces people could enjoy which supported mental-health and wellbeing.

o   Working closely with partners to support biodiversity and the climate change agenda.

·         Some of the challenges the service faced were in relation to:

o   Recruitment.

o   Budgets (no central budget to support parks / open spaces) the service was income generated through SLA’s and client exposure.

o   Machinery, budgets were stretched and there were delays purchasing new fleets and machinery.

o   The gap between expected services and what resources allowed, which was approximately 33 full time employees between March and October.

o   Service standards, which were categorised into Gold, Silver, Bronze or Natural.

·         New areas to maintain were added regularly, without the revenue or machinery to maintain them, which led to subcontracting the work.

·         The section 106 revenue from planning was decreasing, due to developers choosing to use other management companies.

·         The focus was to look at what services could be provided within the resources available, which included combining the silver and bronze categories and keeping the Gold and Natural as they were.

·         A communications plan would be developed to share information with the public, and the key messages, which were:

o   Take littler home,

o   Clear up after dogs

o   The reasons as to why areas were maintained a certain way.

o   Service Standards, so people know what to expect.

·         Future ambitions were:

o   To improve network mapping and link in with other initiatives to increase biodiversity and habitat creation.

o   To invest in more efficient machinery to carry out a wider variety of maintenance tasks.

o   Improve the back-office systems, to be able to make better decision in the future.

o   Enable and empower communities in sports groups, to take ownership of their spaces and access funding.

o   Re-align service standards and budgets using data and knowledge.

 

The Panel acknowledged the 50+ years’ service of two Council employees and recommended that their work be recognised and celebrated.

 

The Panel highlighted the challenges in relation to recruitment and suggested that alternative provisions and the Sunshine Sunflower Foundation be explored, for young people who needed practical learning opportunities which could provide them with a career pathway into the Council to support the recruitment challenge. The Panel also recommended that collaboration with the Councils Community Plus Service around this issue should be taken forward.

 

The Panel acknowledged the merge of silver and bronze service standards but queried the reduction in cutting at recreational grounds and of grass verges, suggesting sensitive consideration be given to football grounds, footpaths etc and to ensure road safety.

 

Graham West, Service Director, Highways and Streetscene responded to the panels questions and advised that, in relation to the Sunshine Sunflower Charity, the service was already engaged with the charity and would seek feedback.

 

In relation to football / recreation grounds the service were working with football clubs to look at increasing standards in house, but that there were also more opportunities for volunteers to support. Work was also being undertaken with Natural Kirklees who were keen to supplement support and add to the services that could be provided in the future.

 

Graham West responded to a question in relation to seasonal staff and the impact the recruitment freeze within Kirklees could have. Graham shared that consideration could still be given to recruitment, which would be assessed by the Strategic Director and a Peoples Panel. Graham further advised that vacancies for seasonal work were becoming more difficult to recruit to, which was likely due to the cost-of-living challenges.

 

Maryke Woods further responded to a question from the Panel in relation to the work being done to support biodiversity and rewilding. Maryke advised that mapping through net gain work and woodland creations supported this, and that part of the future plan was to make sure rewilding was done in the right places and where most benefit would be gained, looking holistically to make the right choices in the right places.

 

 

Regarding the proposed merge of the silver and bronze service standards, Councillor Elizabeth Smaje highlighted that people expected services standards to be followed, and asked how those standards would be met and what were the engagement plans.

 

Graham West responded in relation to service standards and advised that staff were committed to providing the best service, but the challenges were clear. The Council was reviewing the funding available to different service areas and once complete, if there were any amendments to the service standards, engagement would take place. Graham highlighted that the key messages were important and would benefit all in terms of getting others to help and the service being able to undertake its core services.

 

Maryke Woods, further added in relation to service standards that it was an interim position based on the resources that were available and trying to maintain spaces as best as possible. Once the proposals were developed, engagement would take place and the plan would be presented to Scrutiny.

 

Councillor Smaje also highlighted that support for different groups was not available across all of Kirklees and asked what was going to be done to address this. Maryke Woods responded to advise that the team would support any local group where possible but there had been gaps in terms of recruitment and the service were running at 20% vacancy level, which added enormous pressure.

 

Councillor Smaje highlighted The Playing Pitch Strategy 2015, which identified how many pitches / recreation grounds were needed but noted it had not been updated. In response, Graham West advised the service were keen to understand the strategy, what was needed, and the level of service required.

 

Councillor Smaje noted concerns that the service had reduced the amount of cutting in recreational grounds and had planted trees, which may reduce the size of play areas. Councillor Smaje also wanted to understand how bookings would work for recreational grounds going forwards.

 

Maryke Woods advised in terms of rewilding that there would be no changes in relation to maintenance, other than to reduce some cutting within a three-weekly cycle. Joe Robertson, Woodland Manager added that consultation was taking place with local Ward Councillors and communities to address any issues regarding the designs. Consultation had also taken place with development colleagues in parks who considered the Playing Pitch Strategy and designs were to be amended as needed. It was further advised that the Council had committed to the White Rose Forest and to increase its canopy cover to 19%, which meant some land was lost to tree cover.

 

Joe Robertson further provided reassurance that play space was not going to be removed but there would be a change in the type of play interaction the children would have in those areas. For example, woodland aspects had been added to make area more engaging for children and communities which provided a range of benefits.

 

Will Acornley, Head of Operational Services responded to a question from the Panel in relation to section 106 and the net value, and advised that, in the past a calculation over a ten-year period was carried out in relation to how much it cost to maintain a site, which was then provided in a lump sum and broken down annually. Once the ten-year period had ended, maintenance costs transferred across to the Council’s own revenue budget. It was further advised that there was around 2 to 3 years of funding left before the revenue pressure fully emerged into the authority.

 

Will Acornley responded to a question from the Panel in relation to greenway maintenance and shared that the team were working with other services in relation to funding, including combined authority funding. Will advised that Sus Trans had provided an initial funding offer, but this was unaffordable, however talks were still ongoing.

 

Will Acornley responded to a question from the Panel regarding machinery in terms of efficiencies and linking with council initiatives and advised that the team were looking at electric hand tools, new innovations such as GPS linked lining machines and remote controls, but that the biggest challenges was the change in seasonality and the need for machinery to be able to manage it.

 

Graham West responded to a question regarding volunteers and people who may support Council services in the future and advised that Natural Kirklees were able to make payments and that the Council funded their public liability. Graham highlighted the need to look at how the council’s public liability could be extended for other people. Graham also shared that Service Level Agreements were crucial and it was important that if different models of working were clearly communicated if decided.

 

RESOLVED: The Panel noted the report, ‘Grounds Maintenance Current Position’ and recommended that:

 

1)    Thanks be given to Officers serving 50+ years with the Council within the Grounds Maintenance Team and that these officers be recognised and celebrated.

2)    Consideration be given to alternative provisions to support young people needing a more practical learning experience and providing them with a career pathway, and to support recruitment challenges.

3)    Feedback be provided around the work and engagement with the Sunshine Sunflower charity in Kirkburton Ward.

4)    Community Plus and social prescribing services be made aware of opportunities working in partnership with Grounds Maintenance.

5)    An engagement plan be developed in respect of any changes to service standards proposals and be presented to scrutiny.

6)    Improved co-ordination of tree planning on recreational grounds and understanding of what is needed in that area.

7)    Where there are 3^rd party arrangements to support grounds maintenance, service agreements, including financial or physical compensation be put in place.

8)    To be considerate of different community areas to ensure community group are balanced across the board.