ROCHDALE BOROUGH COUNCIL
CABINET MEMBER REPORT TO THE COUNCIL
REPORT OF THE CABINET MEMBER FOR HOUSING AND ENVIRONMENT TO THE MEETING OF THE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY, 29th MARCH 2017
Thank you Mr. Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Housing and Environment Portfolio.
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
Streetscene and Greenspace Development
In-Bloom Award North West in Bloom was a massive success with the council entries alone gaining 16 awards. This is by far the best success we have ever had at these awards including Gold Medal Awards for Rochdale and Heywood, Silver Gilts for Pennines plus specific Gold Medal Awards for Queen’s Park in Heywood and Hollingworth Lake. Rochdale Town Centre was also awarded a Silver Gilt in its first year of entry. To top this success we were also awarded the highest level of achievement in the “In Your Neighbourhood” category which is the “Outstanding” award given to Jubilee Park in Norden, Hare Hill Park in Littleborough, Hopwood Park in Heywood and Moss Row Allotments
Cemetery & Parks Improvements this last year consist of: Denehurst Park redevelopment works are now progressing rapidly with first phase of tree felling and limited replanting with more suitable species in better locations under way and due to be completed by end of March. This will make the Park feel safer to visitors. A major programme of drainage works, footpath resurfacing and the rebuilding of retaining walls around the sunken garden that were in a dangerous condition are also under way as of February 2017 and will be completed by end of June 2017. Additional funding to provide 100 new allotments was made available and the site for the next new allotment will be Great Howarth. Checks are under way to ensure there is no soil contamination before works will start later in 2017 to prepare the site prior to allocating plots. Improvement works to Heywood Cemetery entrance have also been completed and the new stone wall and signage provide a high quality entrance to the cemetery that the people of the Borough can be proud of. Green Flag Award submissions have been made for the same 6 sites as in previous years (Truffet Park in Langley, Queen’s Park in Heywood, Middleton Cemetery, Rochdale Town Centre Park comprising Broadfield, Packer Spout & St Chad’s Gardens & Memorial Gardens opposite Rochdale Town Hall, Milnrow Memorial Park and Hare Hill Park in Littleborough) and we are also submitting Hopwood Park in Heywood and Jubilee Park in Middleton for the first time. Both Parks have had substantial improvement works over the last 2 – 3 years and we feel they are in a good position to compete for a prestigious Green Flag Award. Hopwood Park drainage scheme completed and the previously unusable main field is now a dry grass field for people to enjoy for informal recreation. A joint project to restore the wildflower meadow by Environmental Management and the Friends of Hopwood Park is complete, plus the temporary food hut and planned landscaping improvements helped by a Tesco grant for £12,000. This Park is in the process of being transformed for the benefit of the community. Friends of Hopwood Park now have a lease in place for the disused building in the Park and are being supported by Environmental Management to obtain grant funding to convert it into a café. Queen’s Park café re-opening is going to schedule. Adverts were placed and generated a very good response. Contractor chosen and leases being drawn up with the intention that they are in by end April at the latest, hopefully by Easter. Playing Pitch Strategy consultation has now ended and officers have met with the relevant sports governing bodies and Sport England. Once these organisations are in agreement, we will be finalising the adoption of the Strategy by the Council at the earliest opportunity The Green Volunteer scheme has been running for 8 years and continues to be a success and in past year has secured 688 days-worth of hours of volunteer activity in our parks and open spaces. A renewed recruitment focus has seen volunteer numbers increase again this year where we hope to carry out even more great work with these committed members of the public.
Street Cleansing & Clean & Green The Township based Clean and Green teams have cleared approx. 2,600 sites across the borough in the past year. These teams have been put in place to supplement our existing street cleansing through additional priority investment which has had a significant impact across the Borough. A new evening and weekend shift working trial is in place for litter bin emptying and channel sweeping on our larger roads to improve street cleansing and reduce costs of current provision. As well as keeping the streets clean of litter our Street and Enforcement Teams are now utilising new environmental friendly electric vehicles to help reduce emissions whilst saving us money.
Spring Clean and Big Clean 2017 The Big Clean spring clean was a great success in its first year in 2016. This year we aim to do even better. The Spring Clean kicked off over the weekend 3rd-5th March with 10 community groups carrying out litter picking activities right across the borough and directly supported by the council to generate community interest for our wider Big Clean and to link it in to the national campaign. All of the necessary equipment was supplied to the groups and 230 bags of litter were collected and taken to the Tip. An extensive Council ‘Big Spring Clean’ programme begins in March and will continue throughout the year; extra activities will include additional: Edging off all grass plots on main highways alongside increased mowing frequencies; litter picks; Footpath sweeping and weed removal; Bulky Waste Amnesty; Street furniture cleaning including road signage and around traffic islands; Month long township deep clean focus (one month spent focussed on Rochdale, Heywood, Middleton and Pennines) 29 new landscape schemes and upgrades of existing planting schemes are planned for 2017; A number of Enforcement and Communications initiatives planned; 6 staff volunteer clean ups to be scheduled in over the summer months; 7 community clean-ups were supported by EM Services (provision of litter pick packs and collection of bagged rubbish) to coincide with the National litter pick campaign 3rd – 5th March and these will continue on a bi-monthly basis.
Waste & Recycling An initiative to help residents in some of our more built up areas to recycle more food waste has been a great success and extended to other areas of the borough where larger than average food waste recycling has been reported. As part of the initiative residents are being offered larger wheeled bins in exchange for their smaller caddies where these are no longer able to deal with all of their organic waste. Since November last year we have rolled out food waste collections to targeted flats and communal areas across the borough totalling almost 700 individual residences. Since then we are pleased to report that to date most of the participating facilities are engaging with the new collection service enthusiastically. We estimate that this initiative alone should reduce non- recycling waste in these areas by as much as 35 tonnes per year along with a significant reduction in employee hours and fuel costs. A trial initiative carried out on a small targeted group of properties around the Duke Street/Industry Road area of Rochdale in October and early November to improve the cleanliness of the joint bin collection points has also been a great success. The initiative generated signed pledges from 75% of householders and received glowing accolades from a number of grateful residents who have seen a vast improvement in the cleanliness of these areas alongside significantly increased rubbish recycled in the correct bins. Recycling tonnages continue to perform well although year-on-year we are now up against the launch of the new service in 2016. In January our recycling rate was 49.20% (2016 – 48.96%) Most recycling ‘Bring sites’ across the borough have now been removed due to the amount of fly tipped waste being attracted to them and the lack of quality recycling generated. Almost every household in the borough benefits from kerbside collections of recycling today and as a consequence Bring Sites no longer provide a sustainable solution to the council’s recycling commitments. The remaining 4 sites at our larger supermarkets are also under review and a decision on their future is imminent. At the end of March this year we will be sending out teams of Temporary Recycling Awareness Officers to place new stickers and tags on all refuse bins. The stickers will remind residents not to put food waste into their dark green bin and the tag will encourage the use of brown bins and caddies for the collection of food waste for eventual composting. Diverting food waste away from residual waste saves the council almost £300 per tonne and when you consider that residual waste in Rochdale Borough last year totalled almost 30,000 tonnes, the potential savings are significant. Recycling Improvement and Participation Officers (RIPO’s) in February alone visited 510 residents to help raise awareness on recycling. Operational service improvements have also led to an improvement in our Waste Collection Service as evidenced by a reduction in missed bins complaints by approx. 66% in the past twelve months. The council has also delivered a further 20,000recycling bins in the past year and developments have led to a significant reduction in waiting time for new bins down to five days from the original 35 days.
Environmental Enforcement In addition to dealing with all usual day to day reports concerning environmental and definitive public rights of way issues from members, the general public and others, and progressing all routine investigations, the Environmental Action Unit achieved the following headline results during the calendar year 2016: 17 convictions for environmental crimes 19 paid cautions for environmental offences 18 Fixed Penalty Notices issued 20 unlawful traveller encampment removals 324 statutory notices served 128 formal warnings issued The Enforcement Service is due to receive an overhaul in the coming months with a new Policy and dedicated Public Realm Team based on a neighbourhood level to deal with a wide range of Environmental and Anti-Social Behaviour issues alongside the Police and other agencies. New Enforcement Wardens will also be visible in Rochdale town centre areas dealing with litter, trade waste and other environmental offences.
It is anticipated that the roles of the new Town Centre Wardens in particular will result in a substantial increase in the number of Fixed Penalty Notices issued
HIGHWAYS, PROPERTY AND FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
HIGHWAYS
The highways service has successfully delivered the following throughout 2016/17
Design & Construction Unit We have progressed the detail design of the South Heywood Junction 19 Link Road project. The route of the highway is now fixed and has been submitted for full planning approval in conjunction with the outline planning submission for the residential/industrial element of the project. We are continuing to liaise with partner organisations to develop the scheme with a view to construction works commencing on site in early 2019. The Baillie Street/Yorkshire Street public realm improvement works are continuing on site. The project includes the provision of a rising bollard system to prevent illegal vehicular access to further enhance the area for pedestrians. Completed the paving works to “Christmas Tree Island” adjacent to Rochdale Town Hall and erected the statue of Gracie Fields. A new “Toucan” pedestrian crossing point was installed at Queensway along with the resurfacing of a significant area of carriageway. The works also involved the provision of new road markings and coloured surfacing. We have installed new off road cycle routes at Wildhouse Lane, Milnrow and Slattocks, Middleton The footways along Long Street, Middleton have been re-paved with natural stone materials. The works also included the reconstruction of part of the retaining wall adjacent to the library. Carriageway resurfacing works have been completed at Pilsworth Road, Heywood and Bowness Road, Middleton. Footway reconstruction works have been completed at Stopford Avenue, Littleborough, Castle Hill Crescent, Rochdale, Manchester Road, Rochdale, Warwick Close and Glenwood Drive in Middleton. We have successfully completed 3 areas of Middleton Town Centre.
Bridges and Structures We continue to undertake regular and more in depth inspections and assessments of our 395 highway structures (bridges, retaining walls, subways, culverts and cattle grids) ensuring that they remain in a fit for purpose and safe to use state. In 2016/17 we completed the following schemes which began on site in 2015/16 Higher Calderbrook Road Retaining Wall No.2: Pennine Top O’ Th’ Wood Retaining Wall: Rochdale Calderbrook Road Retaining Wall No.5: Pennine Todmorden Road Retaining Wall No.3 and 4: Pennine Mellor Spodden North and South Bridges Refurbishment: Rochdale Edenfield Road Retaining wall No.3: Rochdale St Marys Gate Subway Headwall and Pedestrian Barrier Replacement: Rochdale Mossway Retaining Wall: Middleton We also began work on the following schemes which will complete in 2017/18 Oldham Road Canal Bridge Strengthening: Rochdale Todmorden Road Retaining Wall No.5: Pennine Todmorden Road Retaining Wall No.8: Pennine As a result of Highways Structures: A Code of Practice being replaced by Well Managed Highway Infrastructure: we will assess how this affects our current policies and strategies and rewrite them accordingly.
Network Development and Improvement Worked with planning to provide Highway advice on planning applications and future developments. Installed 2 no. flood basins in Littleborough.
Parking Continued to enforce all waiting restrictions in the borough Worked outside schools by use of camera car to restrict parking and protect children
Network Management By use of statutory powers and the Greater Manchester Road Access Permit Scheme(GMRAPS) maintaining the movement of traffic on the borough roads Worked with the events team to organise the Rochdale Half marathon and other events safely We have implemented 18 Traffic Regulation Orders/ Schemes Started 41 Traffic Regulation Order Schemes Processed 173 Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders of which 15 were Emergencies and 30 were to facilitate events and Parades. We have helped plan, facilitate and provided traffic management for 34 events/Parades across the Borough such as the Remembrance Day Parades, The Rochdale Half Marathon, Feel Good Festival, St George’s Day Parades and Local Carnivals.
Within GMRAPS We have processed and granted 7699 Road Activities Permits Challenged the length of time required to undertake Emergency works on 198 permits reducing the time they have to complete the works thus reducing the impact on highway users. 54 of which required traffic control (eg. Temp signals or lane closures) Issued 63 Fixed Penalty Notices & fines for working without a permit and not complying with permit conditions.
Highway Maintenance By closer working with our term maintenance Contractor Belfour Beatty the team has delivered the reactive maintenance service Delivered a high quality winter service Delivered the capital programme including the extra investment by the council.
Street Lighting Routine maintenance for 2017 is being carried out on all assets on a 4 year program that runs from January to December each year, as at end of February the program is 20% complete and on schedule. As of end of February EON has taken an average of 1.93 days to repair a street light and for the period October 2016 to January 2017 the average percentage of lights working was 99.01%
As the Portfolio Holder for Highways I chaired the latest meeting of the Highways Township Champions meeting on the 13th March 2017 at which the forward programme of highway works for 2017/ 18 was presented. This provides full details of all patching, reconstruction, gulley replacement, bridges and structures and drainage repair works for the whole borough. This programme will be submitted to Townships for approval and sign off and the programme will start on the 1st April 2017.
PROPERTY Following the Boxing Day Flood damage, £1.1m of repairs completed to N1R and the building is back to being fully operational. Over the past 12 months the Service has delivered just under £5M worth of building improvement work through the Council Buildings Asset Management Programme (AMG), Schools Capital Maintenance Programme and direct with the schools through their devolved capital budget. The service has continued to work with Early Help and Schools with place planning work to increase capacity at key primary schools through the Borough. Middleton Town Centre Gardens enveloping scheme to shops completed successfully Successful Insurance Audit for statutory compliance at Number One Riverside and Town Hall. The Service has continued to successfully ensure that statutory compliance is maintained to all RBC buildings and most Schools through a Service Level Agreement. The Service continues to work with other services, particularly, Environmental Management with landscaping schemes at many locations such as Denehurst Park The implementation of energy efficiency projects has continued with 4 further schools through LED lighting/solar PV’s. Improvements in the management of Number one riverside continues with desk information and allocation added to MySite, trialling of on-line booking system for the training and conference centre and accessible changing facility to be installed on the ground floor. Our Reactive and Planned Maintenance Team, Managed Property Services (MPS) continues to deliver £1m of repairs and upgrades to the Council’s building and schools – reacting to emergency calls outs within 2 hours and schemes which can be planned in advance at times to suit the service requesting the work.
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT The catering service has developed a new menu for all primary schools taking effect from the 1st April 17. The menus are in line with nutritional guidelines set by the government and are designed to support the Borough’s children in reducing obesity. Liz Earnshaw kitchen supervisor at St Vincents School has been awarded Accrington & Rossendale college apprentice of the year in Hospitality and Supervision leadership. The cleaning service has been shortlisted for a National Cleaning Award from the Association of Cleaning Services for the cleaning provided at Rochdale Town Hall and St Cuthbert’s RC High School. These services will be judged in April and the winners announced at a ceremony in May 17.
Town Hall Year-to-date figures compare very favourably with the previous year with increases seen in the income from all areas; overall income has increased by 31% when compared to 2015/16. The Town Hall continues to host a series of events and positively contributes to the image of Rochdale. Some of these include: Masquerade Ball – a Christmas party night organised by the Town Hall team Burn’s Night – hosted in the Town Hall by the Scottish Society Edwin Waugh – hosted by Touchstones museum Holocaust Memorial – working in partnership with local organisations Strictly Come Dancing – raising money for the Mayor’s Charity, in partnership with Turner’s Dance Centre The Plays The Thing – our first event held in the Clock Tower Dining Room The remedial work on the first floor servery was completed before Christmas. This allowed us to invest in essential improvements to the main kitchen during January and February. These have now been completed and the Clock Tower Dining Room has reopened fully with an improved menu. Recruitment is almost complete and the extended opening hours are planning to be in effect from May. Several TV companies have been using the building as a filming location over the past few months. The music service continues to successfully operate from the second floor. The Town Hall continues to experience a 40% increase in tours
ESTATES AND ASSETS
Disposals The programme of asset disposals has continued. In 2016/17 the current statistics are as follows (figure in brackets is for full year 2015/16): Number of assets disposed of = 14 (11) Hectares disposed of = 3.37 (13.38) Capital receipts = £1.5m (£2.3m) Asset Rationalisation The Service has delivered £140k savings from buildings from the 2016/17 budget. Council services have been able to make additional budget cuts directly due to asset rationalisation. Further opportunities for further rationalisation savings are being continually progressed.
Community Centres The Council has supported its community centre tenants by committing over £250k to assist with major building repairs and refurbishments.
Investment Portfolio The Service has been focusing upon ways in which to realise enhanced revenue income and savings from the Council’s investment portfolio. Having commissioned a report on the performance of the estate from consultants LSH work is now progressing to examine the recommendations from the report and to widen the scope of review.
STRATEGIC HOUSING
Discretionary Crisis Fund and Local Welfare Provision The Discretionary Crisis Fund has:- Supported 838 vulnerable residents in the first 11 months of this financial year. 4,753 individual items have been awarded with a total spend of £244,381. 95% of the money spent has been used for providing essential household items for those resettling in to the borough after leaving temporary accommodation. Emergency crisis awards, for household energy for example, made up 5% of the total spend.
Welfare Reform An impact assessment was undertaken to understand the impact of the new welfare reforms, determine who will be affected, where they live and how they access advice and support. In response to this, a targeted communications plan was developed. We have worked with Housing Providers to reach those in Social Housing affected by the benefit cap, and the Bond Board for those living in the Private Rented Sector. Data from the Impact Assessment and information from the DWP of those likely to be affected by the benefit cap, was also shared with relevant partner organisations, so we could target our efforts, and follow up on the various letters residents we’re sent by the DWP informing them of the changes. The Welfare Reform page of the council website was updated with the most up to date information and advertised through information cards which were available in libraries, handed out to front line workers, faith groups, and other groups. Website traffic was monitored to track residents accessing the updated information. Front line workers were involved where possible, when a relationship with the resident already existed. We have been raising awareness of the changes to the benefits system through key frontline Council staff, and officers within partner organisations, as well as Elected Members being provided with the relevant information to enable them to advise residents.
Universal Credit data Total caseload of Universal Credit claims at 31st January 2017 was 3,674. The proportions of claimants are as follows; 27% Middleton, 18% Heywood, 55% Rochdale 32% aged 16 to 24, 58% aged 25 to 49, 9% aged 50 and over 63% not in employment, 37% in employment The number of claimants in the 16 to 24 age group have steady declined since July 2015, whilst claimants between the ages of 25-49 have increased.
Homelessness This has been another challenging year for both statutory and voluntary sector services but through the continued support of the council and the strong commitment to partnership working we have been able to report just over 1400 households prevented from becoming homeless in the first 3 quarters of this year. We have supported our voluntary sector partners to secure additional funding from The Big Lottery, Lloyds TSB, Community Arts North West, the PCC, NHS England and Public Health to help met the needs of some of the most vulnerable people in the community. This year we have refreshed and delivered a new Homelessness Strategy for the Borough that sets out how we will continue to work towards preventing homelessness over the next 3 years. Over the next 12 months a new Homelessness Reduction Bill will come into force that will place a greater responsibility upon Boroughs to assist all households at risk of homelessness. In order to help meet this new challenge, the DCLG has agreed for Rochdale and the other 9 GM boroughs to become Homelessness Reduction Trailblazers. We will be working across the sub region to with our partners to develop GM wide services to enhance our prevention work and in particular to stop people falling into the cycle of rough sleeping.
Affordable Housing Registered Provider partners are on target to complete 62 new affordable homes for rent, by the end of 2016/17. All these properties are being developed on brownfield sites. A total of 6 funding bids for schemes in the borough were submitted in September 2016 by registered provider partners to the Homes and Communities Agency in the initial bidding round for the Shared Ownership Affordable Homes Programme (SOAHP) 2016-21. The HCA has recently confirmed grant funding allocations for all 6 schemes which will deliver 39 shared ownership homes and 76 rent to buy properties.
Housing on Former Council Owned Brownfield Sites Countryside Properties and SDL Group are continuing to make good progress with the private rent schemes on Nile Street in Rochdale and George Street in Heywood. At Nile Street all 61 properties on the site are completed and let Countryside Properties are developing 43 properties on the George Street site and are due to complete construction works by the end of June 2017. The SDL Group, who are responsible for letting and managing the properties, have commenced advertising the new homes and as at 13/3/2017 had taken reservations on approximately half the properties. The first batch of completed properties,11 in total, are due to be handed over in late March 2017. In 2016/17 Keepmoat Homes completed the development of two schemes on former Council owned Brownfield sites at Furrows Park, Middleton and Dean Street Rochdale which delivered 185 new homes for sale. Following the success of these two schemes discussions have commenced with Keepmoat regarding the development of another Council owned site in Middleton which, subject to approval, will produce 248 new homes for sale. Approval has recently been granted for the disposal of four Council owned brownfield sites around Rochdale Town Centre for new housing. The proposals for the four sites, which are located at Roch Street, Gower Street, Durham Street/Lincoln Street and Norwich Street involve the development of 274 homes. During 2016/17 Gleeson Homes commenced development of a new 259 unit housing scheme on the former site of the Hill Top Primary School on the Kirkholt estate in Rochdale. Gleeson Homes have also recently obtained planning approval for the development of a 143 unit housing scheme on the site of the former Balderstone School.
Empty Properties The Empty Property Team, in conjunction with Groundwork Oldham Rochdale, was shortlisted for the LGC awards – unfortunately they didn’t win their category but good work was recognised by being shortlisted along with 7 other projects. The number of persistent long term empty properties has continued to reduce as a result of the intervention of the Empty Property team, with the reduction to 900 properties, from a starting point of over 3,000 in 2012. The award of New Homes Bonus, as a result of bringing empty properties back into use and the number of new build properties, to be paid in 2017-18, will exceed the projected target by £236,000. The team, working with Groundwork Oldham and Rochdale, will shortly commence the conversion of the former adult services offices, Denehurst House, into residential apartments, a community café and community space.
Energy Efficiency The external wall insulation scheme partially funded by grants from Warm Zones, a national charity, has resulted in over 100 properties having benefitted from the scheme in 2016-’17. A further 100 properties across the borough will benefit from the scheme in 2017-‘18. The Government has changed the eligibility criteria for qualifying for energy efficiency grants, which allow the inclusion of properties and residents who have previously been excluded from the scheme. Further details will be provided to members in due course. The replacement boiler scheme has been slow to gather pace, due to engagement difficulties with the energy company providing the grants. These issues are now much improved and there have been over 40 replacement boilers installed in the current financial year.
Private Rented Sector The multi-agency inspections of commercial and hot food establishments commenced under Operation Maverick have continued and is still proving very effective in identifying unauthorised and sub-standard housing, along with a range of other offences. 122 premises have been inspected by the Maverick multi-agency team Number of PET multi-agency operations: 24 – 12 of which were externally funded Op Maverick The Private Rented Sector team has dealt with 189 repairs and complaints reported by tenants during the year The team have also dealt with 42 attempted revenge evictions where landlords have attempted to gain possession of their property through illegal means. The legislation and procedures governing the private rented sector are changing, with greater levels of regulation and checking, which the authority will be responsible for implementing, monitoring and enforcing. Members will be invited to a briefing session once the full details and guidance have been revealed.
CORONERS HOSTED SERVICE
We are currently reviewing the Coroners accommodation requirements following the closure of the County Court and Magistrates’ Court at Oldham, which the Coroner used for larger inquests that require a Jury panel. This is proving challenging and the Corner is using the TOPS business centre in Heywood on a temporary basis. Various options are being considered in collaboration with our Partners at Oldham and Bury.
REGISTRATION AND CELEBRANT SERVICES
The Registration service continues to provide a valuable service from the Vicars Gate section of the Town Hall in Partnership with the Registrar General. Ceremonies at the Town Hall continue to be popular and we have the annual Wedding Show on Sunday the 2nd April that traditionally showcases the facilities on offer and leads to further bookings as a wedding venue.
Councillor Neil Emmott Portfolio Holder for Housing and Environment
Thank you Mr. Mayor, I will be pleased to answer any questions from Members of the Council about these or any other matter relating to the Housing and Environment Portfolio