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| "Love where you live' |
I have received a number of complaints about how long it now takes for goods to be collected.
This is an example sent in by reader Paul Lorber with a 7 week gap.
From Brent Customer Services June 15th 2016Lorber has asked what the service timescales are but remarks that if this service has been commissioned by Brent Council and is acceptable to them it is clearly poor value for money, although representing plenty of profit for Veolia.
Thank you for your Special Collection enquiry. Your request for:
Item 1: Freezer
Item 2: Non Metal Bed Frame
Item 3: Other Household Waste
Item 4: Other Household Waste
Item 5: Other Household Waste
To be collected has been logged and your unique reference number is XXXXXXX
Your items will be collected on 08 August 2016.
Please ensure the items are placed together in the front garden ready for collection.
If you have any queries or wish to change the week of your collection please telephone the Customer Services on 020 8937 5050.
Lorber is fortunate in having a front drive in which the items can be placed but many residents have extremely small front gardens or none at all and is is surely no wonder that mattresses, sofas, fridges, gas stoves, lavatory pans and broken gym equipment all end up on the pavement attracting further fly-tipping.
Brent Council promised an improved service when Veolia took over but I pointed out what I saw as a weakness in the contract:
One aspect that may concern councillors is that Veolia will be responsible for monitoring itself:
I think it would be useful for the Scrutiny Committee responsible for Public Realm to review Veolia's performance by inviting Veolia executives to answer questions from councillors and the public about the service. Cllr John Duffy has raised a number of issues on his own blog LINK and on Wembley Matters LINK LINKThe contract will be self-monitoring, meaning that the contractor is accountable for measuring, monitoring and improving their own performance with the council carefully auditing their performance. This, along with Key Outcome Targets set for each of the different services will ensure that the Contractor is motivated to deliver the services.
Veolia will also be dealing with complaints from councillors and residents in the first instance thus 'placing responsibility on the Contractor to ‘own’ and be accountable for service complaints'.
This should cover the grounds maintenance of BHP estates and parks maintenance which were handed over to Veolia along with street cleansing, cemeteries, sports centres and much else. When the Council gave the Public Realm contract to Veolia they withdrew from the Green Flag scheme for parks and open spaces which had provided a widely valued external audit of parks maintenance.
One matter we have heard little about is how the litter enforcement contract, awarded to Kingdom, is working. This was also criticised by Cllr Duffy LINK and an update on it would be useful as it was seen as a trial. At the same time Veolia's promised role in spotting fly-tipping and acting upon it included working with Brent's enforcement team. Is this happening?
From the original Officer's report to Cabinet on the Public Realm contract:
Fly tips will be cleared promptly. That is a key requirement. Veolia have committed their operatives to becoming “the eyes and the ears” of the council, trained to identify, report, and manage all day-to-day fly-tips using mobile devices. The initial role on all enforcement will be Veolia. Enforcement investigations will be managed as far as possible by the Veolia supervisors and managers who will ensure photographic evidence and pocket notebook records are taken to secure evidence. Once a case is correctly and sufficiently built, Veolia will work with Brent’s enforcement team to bring final prosecution.UPDATE; The day after this article was published Brent Council issued a press release on the Kingdom fixed penalty litter enforcment trial. LINK
A key problem with outsourcing litter collection to the private sector is that they profit from litter collection. Its not within their financial interests to pick up items quickly. Meanwhile, faced with a 7 week wait or an instant flytip its not hard to see why the streets are filled with junk. Then, it costs us, the tax payer additional money to get it cleared up. The local council then spends a lot of money to develop an app (due to inadequate contracts Labour Cllrs were meant to oversee) that in effect deputises the public as veolia workers to identify where flytip occurs. Veolia then trot out providing a service to remove this flytip which again, costs money. Money that stems from our taxes that could also pay for things like pot holes or improving the environment as opposed to mattress fighting.
ReplyDeleteA key problem with outsourcing litter collection to the private sector is that they profit from litter collection. Its not within their financial interests to pick up items quickly. Meanwhile, faced with a 7 week wait or an instant flytip its not hard to see why the streets are filled with junk. Then, it costs us, the tax payer additional money to get it cleared up. The local council then spends a lot of money to develop an app (due to inadequate contracts Labour Cllrs were meant to oversee) that in effect deputises the public as veolia workers to identify where flytip occurs. Veolia then trot out providing a service to remove this flytip which again, costs money. Money that stems from our taxes that could also pay for things like pot holes or improving the environment as opposed to mattress fighting.
ReplyDeleteThis is ridiculous!!!!!
ReplyDeletePerhaps our esteemed council leader could get off his butt and hire a high tip transit van every Saturday for a few hours and make use of those doing compulsory community voluntary service to deal with this. Perhaps there would be some good photo opportunities and at least he could then say that he is committed to the "Love where you live" campaign.
I thought Veolia's contract involves a fixed-sum umbrella that covers everything, including additional services (like collections via the cleaner Brent app)? So it's not the cost but simply the complacency and inability of them to carry out their role effectively.
ReplyDeleteQ. What do you think of Veolia's bulk waste collection service?
ReplyDeleteA. Rubbish!