At an annual cost of £4m, a new street cleansing contract has started with Caxton Facilities Management. In an ambitious departure from tradition, street cleaning, graffiti removal and public toilet cleaning services, are now provided under one contract. With street cleaning and graffiti removal services operating since late March, the public toilet cleaning service will commence in July as the existing contract comes to an end. The new five year combined contract, designed to be more responsive and better value, is a challenging step forward for the Council’s Street Services.
“This is an exciting new venture for us. With all our street cleaning needs covered under one umbrella - from sweeping the roads to cleaning public toilets and removing graffiti - more flexibility and better economies of scale can be achieved. The very latest street cleaning vehicles have been purchased and are now being used on our streets” said Councillor George Taylor, Executive Councillor for the Environment.
Although the contractor’s new methods and cleaning standards, introduced over the next few weeks, will take time to show, Tom McConnell, Head of Contract Management said: “This is just the start - we know there are areas still to improve and there’s still some way to go. But we’ve already had some positive feedback - although the contract has only been running a few weeks - residents have already noticed there are more crews out and about.”
To achieve a higher standard of street cleanliness, new cleaning methods will be used - including street washing and “ride on” pavement sweepers. Along with £1 million pounds worth of new equipment - some of which has been custom built - three teams dedicated to sweeping roads, pavements and emptying litter bins, will go out first thing in the morning, cleaning each of the town centres: Orpington, West Wickham, Beckenham, Penge and Bromley. After a thorough clean, the teams move on to clean the smaller shopping centres like Petts Wood, Hayes, Biggin Hill, The Crays, Chatterton Road, Locksbottom, Green Street Green, Mottingham and Burnt Ash Lane, before resuming their normal programme of cleaning the side streets.
For those roads which are especially difficult to clean because of heavily parked cars, more “Spring Cleans” are planned. The “Spring Clean” allows these problematic roads to be closed off for one day, ensuring easy access. Residents are given prior notice, so all cars and obstacles can be removed before the day of the clean. Various specialists then go in to sweep the roads, mend potholes, repair street lights and clean the drains - or anything else that needs attention.
To make sure high standards of cleanliness are achieved and maintained, a random sample of residents will receive a questionnaire shortly after their road has been cleaned. This enables them to comment on the effectiveness of the clean and the feedback from this helps monitor the contractor’s performance.
Other new clean up measures include mechanical night sweeping in non-residential areas and installing cigarette bins in town centres - along with more emptying and washing out of the most heavily used litter bins. In addition, all of the contractor’s vehicles have the latest GPS monitoring equipment installed and are always contactable by mobile phone. The advantage of this is not only being able to check the vehicle’s exact whereabouts but it also enables them to be re-routed to other locations, if needed.
The new high profile graffiti removal service aims to remove graffiti quicker than ever before - even at weekends. Graffiti removal crews will be out in their distinctive, brightly coloured vehicles, responding to residents reports of graffiti as well as removing any other graffiti they find. Whether it’s on Council owned or private property, as long as it can be seen from a public place they’ll remove it. But, other owners of street property, like NTL’s green communications boxes, also suffer from graffiti vandalism. At present, graffiti can’t be removed from NTL property without their authority but it is hoped an agreement can be reached in the near future.
As from July, Caxton Facilities Management will also take over responsibility for cleaning the borough’s thirty public toilets. This includes opening and closing of toilets in the mornings and evenings, general maintenance and for the first time, graffiti removal. This had been a difficult issue to deal with in the past but under the combined contract, specialist skills within the graffiti service can now be called upon to remove graffiti in public toilets.
To report cleaning problems with streets or public toilets, call the Customer Service Centre on: 020 8313 4557.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
- The total cost of the Street Cleansing Contract is £20m. The initial contract period is 5 years with an option to extend by a further 2 years.
For media enquiries, please contact Andrew Rogers, Communications Advisor on 020 8461 7670 or Tom McConnell, Contracts Manager on 020 8313 4703 or e-mail andrew.rogers@bromley.gov.uk.
Further information about Street Services is available at www.bromley.gov.uk/neatstreet.