Malcolm Grange, Environmental Services, will give a presentation of the Environmental Services work carried out in the Westcotes Ward and introduce the new City Wardens.
Members of the Public will be invited to participate in group discussions concerning environmental issues in the area, such as litter, bins, graffiti and pavements.
Minutes:
The meeting received a presentation from Malcolm Grange, Head of Street Scene Enforcement about the Environmental Services which were provided in the Westcotes Ward.
He gave details on the following areas of work undertaken in the ward:-
- Waste and Recycling – There was still a weekly collection of waste in Leicester, also free collection of 5 bulky items and the city achieved a 33% recycling rate.
- Street Cleaning – the Council undertook area based street cleaning. As part of this matters such as fly tipping, abandoned vehicles, discarded needles and graffiti were also dealt with. The Westcotes ward had much higher than average incidents of flytipping and higher than average incidents of abandoned vehicles.
- Other Street Scene Matters – these included cleaning of chewing gum in the city centre, graffiti removal from Virgin Media equipment boxes and the bins on streets pilot initiative, where efforts were made to get residents bins removed from the street outside their houses.
- City Wardens - Malcolm informed the meeting that the Westcotes Ward would be having a City Warden working in the ward from October, looking tackle a range of enviro crime issues and improve the local environment.
- Pest Control Services - it was noted that there were lower levels, than average, of call outs to deal with all types of pest problems (rats, mice, cockroaches, fleas) in the Westcotes Ward.
- Dog Control Orders – A range of new powers were being introduced. For example, dogs would be restricted from certain areas such as children’s play areas and fines could be levied against irresponsible owners for not cleaning up mess.
- Noisy Neighbours – information was provided on the services provided by the Noise Control Team, who provided a call-out service until 2.00am seven days a week. This team had been particularly busy in the ward. This was largely due to the playing of loud music in the domestic setting and the number of bars on Braunstone Gate and Narborough Road. One of these bars, Sutra, had caused particular problems.
- Smile Safe Scheme – this was where businesses selling food and drink were inspected and given a rating of their hygiene. He outlined businesses which were good eg, Natwest Staff Restaurant and King Richard III Infant and Nursery School. Some which were bad, eg. Oasis on Narborough Road and Sizzler on Saxon Street.
- Licensing – the Licensing Team was responsible for granting of alcohol and other licenses. New rules had recently been brought in to restrict food vans outside schools to prevent bad eating habits from developing. They also oversaw the ‘Best Bar None’ scheme which promoted good practices amongst the city’s licensees.
- Building Control – Officers had been responsible for checking the safety of building projects, in Westcotes this mainly related to house and retail premises extensions. Officers had also undertaken a great deal of work checking buildings in the aftermath of the earth tremor in February.
- 10,000 Trees Project – Malcolm provided details of this project which intended to plant 10,000 trees in the city over the next three years. Residents were welcomed to put their suggestions forward for locations for the Trees.
The Chair thanked Malcolm for his presentation.