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.