A recent dump on the Pilgrims Way Council Estate
A recent decision by a Brent Cabinet member became effective on Thursday and its impact will be watched with interest by residents.
Cllr Promise Knight, lead member for Cleaner Streets, Transport and Public Realm, after consultation with Council leader Muhammed Butt, has agreed a £1.54m extension to the £275m Veolia waste contract for a 12 month period.
The changes address some of the issues raised by residents, including dumps on council estates made by outsiders, as demonstrated above.
Any extension of the additional services beyond the 12 months will be subject to review, including the necessary finances being available. The cost of this variation of the Contract will be funded from £3m growth awarded to Public Realm as part of the budget setting process. This was awarded as an investment in Public Realm and Street Cleansing to deliver clearer and more visible improvements in cleanliness across the Borough.
The proposed changes/additions
(a) To include the provision of two small mechanical street sweepers to address street cleansing. Following recent funding from NCIL, mechanical sweepers were trialled for additional street cleaning, and they have been key in keeping Brent’s side roads and residential roads clean and have made a huge difference to the look and feel of the public realm.
(b) To widen the scope of the contract to include 5 additional litter pickers in each Brent Connect area to cover town centres and high streets cleaning. Litter pickers were another feature trialled recently. This brought in a significant change in the borough cleanliness. Litter pickers are important as they pick up surface litter that would be missed, as many roads are swept once a month even with rapid response crew help. This proposal of extra litter pickers operating on weekdays and weekends to cover from Friday- Tuesday, will help deal with extra pressure and demands generated over the weekends.
(c) To widen the scope of contract to include nighttime street cleaning and waste collection. Brent currently has a trial in place for nighttime street cleaning/waste collection. This overnight service from 9.00pm till 6.00am has improved the look and feel of our town centres in terms of overnight dumped waste. The borough looks much cleaner in the morning and the morning collection crew are able to complete their rounds efficiently and on time. The service feels that this initiative will immensely help towards maintaining a cleaner borough.
(d) To widen the scope to include a dedicated Persistent Organic Pollutants (PoPS) waste collection 7 days a week. In 2024, PoPS legislation came into effect and PoPS could not be mixed with other waste and necessitated a separate arrangement for PoPs collection. Due to the urgency and limited time period to put arrangements in place, a rapid response crew from Wembley North was re-directed to collect PoPs instead without incurring additional costs to the Council. The PoPs collection has worked so far but this has had an impact in street cleansing standards in the North of Wembley. Therefore, the service will benefit from having a separate collection crew and bringing the Wembley North crew back to meet the core contract requirement.
(e) To widen the scope to include waste collection from unregistered land. The NCIL project funding for waste on private land clearance has helped neighbourhood managers to get ad hoc cleaning done on parts of land that gets neglected and becomes an issue for ASB or a hot spot for dumping waste. If these ad hoc services are agreed and arranged with Veolia then it will help neighbourhood managers to keep on top without it turning into a big problem requiring huge resources for clearance.
(f) To widen the scope to include a weekend rapid response street cleansing crew. In the current contract there are no pick-up crews collecting from residential areas during weekends. Due to the high volume of waste and fly-tip events occurring over the weekend period, this results in delayed responses and backlogs that significantly impact service delivery and Monday operations. The accumulation of waste over two days creates operational challenges and increases the workload for weekday crews. The introduction of two morning shift pick-up crews to collect from residential areas, with one crew covering the South and one crew covering the North of the Borough will help keep our streets clean. The shift will operate from 07:00 until 13:30.
(g) To widen the scope to trial an additional resource of a vehicle and two crew members for our Brent Housing Estates. There is a requirement for a dedicated service to support Brent’s housing estates in the collection of Fly-tipped and excess waste. Due to the high volume of this type of waste on our estates, the existing in-house service is unable to cope. Officers have worked with Veolia to come up with a solution which would cover these services on 15 of our estates which needs additional service. This service will consists of 1 x 26t tonne RCV and 1 x Caged vehicle (Rapid Response) and a supervisor. The RCV will be used to collect Fly-tips (non POPS) and excess waste. The Caged vehicle will be used to clear POPS items as well as provide a rapid response element which can be quickly dispatched to attended to priority jobs. The supervisor is needed to co-ordinate the teams and act as a direct contact between Brent Council and the crews. The service is proposed to run for a trial of 12 months, Monday – Friday during normal working hours.
Costs breakdown
Each recommendation contains the 12 months estimated costs as listed below and are based on the hourly rates provided in the contract. Following the 12 months period, viability of projects and improvements made will be assessed and a longer-term plan for individual projects will be discussed with senior members and finance to establish budgets and additional contract expenditure.
(a) To include the provision of two small mechanical street sweeper to address street cleansing -£150k
(b) To widen the scope of the contract to include 5 additional litter pickers in each Brent Connect area to cover town centres and high streets cleansing- £250k.
(c) To widen the scope of contract to include Nighttime Street cleansing and waste collection- £120k.
(d) To widen the scope to include a dedicated Persistent Organic Pollutants (PoPS) waste collection 7 days a week -£180k.
(e) To widen the scope to include waste collection from unregistered land-£150k.
(f) To widen the scope to include a weekend rapid response street cleansing crew- £140k.
(g) To widen the scope to trial an additional resource of a vehicle and two crew members for our Brent Housing Estates -£550k
Climate Change and Environmental Considerations
The dedicated Persistent Organic Pollutants waste collection service helps the Council manage hazardous waste safely and in compliance with environmental regulations. This will reduce the risk of pollutants entering the environment.
The inclusion of waste collection from unregistered land will also help address accumulations of waste that can negatively impact neurodiversity and public health.
Whilst the additional cleansing and collection services may result in some associated carbon emissions, these impacts are expected to be outweighed by the environmental benefits that come from improved waste management, cleaner public spaces, faster responses to environmental incidents, and reduced levels of littering.
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