The Head Of Operations - Community Services presented a report to update on the current street cleansing activities and resource levels throughout Bridgend County Borough and its Town Centres.

He explained that that the ongoing financial savings implemented by BCBC in order to meet reductions in public funding have had a significant impact on the size of the Street Cleansing Teams. He advised that in 2010, the street Scene Department consisted of around 85 staff in total, now in 2019 the department was made up of 35 operators.

The Head Of Operations - Community Services explained that in May 2019, the All Wales Local Environmental Audit and Management System Report 2018-19 compiled from independent on street inspections carried out by Keep Wales Tidy, gave Bridgend a Cleanliness Indicator Score of 67.7 and graded the streets predominantly free of litter and refuse apart from some small items or better as 96.7%. These scores were shown on Appendix 1 with all other Welsh authorities, as can be seen the Bridgend scores are comparable with those of surrounding South Wales authorities. He added that the general score was actually the highest Bridgend has ever scored.

The Head Of Operations - Community Services explained that the Cleaner Streets Operations Officer had spent considerable time over the past year building relations with the community. They had attended meetings to identify opportunities and offer support and ideas for ways in which to work together to meet objectives. He outlined the project work that had taken place which was listed at 4.9 of the report.

The Head Of Operations - Community Services explained the situation on dog fowling and said that it had been on the forefront of complaints received coupled with social media escalating people’s opinions further, which had increased the demand for more action to be taken. He advised that the Public Space Protection Orders could be used in certain areas which gave the Local Authority the power to place bans for certain activities in an area, one of which can be dog walking, as a way to tackle the dog fouling. Further enforcement had also been in place whereby members of the public who walk their dog can now be fined for not carrying appropriate dog waste disposal bags.

The Head Of Operations - Community Services explained that to further improve the street scene environment, the contractor 3GS had been engaged to carry out litter enforcement activities throughout the borough. He advised that 592 fines had been issued and 10 prosecutions that had gone to court. He stated that approximately 80% of the fines issued were from cigarette littering. The enforcement work began in May 2019 and was set for review after one year had elapsed which would then set out future provision for enforcement.

The Head of Operations – Community Services explained that the costs of the Street Cleansing Teams were met through the Councils Revenue Budget and there was also additional funding provided from Welsh Government for £30,000 which would be used for the Volunteer Community Hubs Project.

A Member stated that this area of the Communities Directorate was a shining light, and that the public have taken the initiative to help by picking up litter themselves. The Leader commented that the initiative had only been in place for a few months but had already proven very successful.

Cllr Jenkins explained that there was still a big issue of fly tipping in the Llynfi Valley. He stated that one area which costed a lot of money to clean, was already back in the same condition just a few months later. He explained that CCTV in problem areas, although it would be expensive, could catch the persistent fly tippers and avoid further costs of cleaning. He added that there should be a bylaw in place to ensure businesses were not leaving the rubbish and bi-products left over from their premises outside in the streets.

The Head of Operations – Community Services thanked Cllr Jenkins for the points made. He explained that the authority was constrained with resources and staff so this would be difficult to achieve. He added that considering the cuts that had been made, the authority had done extremely well with what was available.

The Head of Operations – Community Services explained that the local authority needed to work with Town and Community Councils and the community more intelligently to figure out the best ways to use the resources that we had and asked for any suggestions from Members and Town Councillors if there were any local knowledge that might help with this, e.g. where hotspots were for littering, where best to place the litter bins etc.

Cllr Unwin asked if there were any road cleaning machines available to use for particular areas of Bridgend Town. The Cleaner Streets & Waste Contract Manager stated that they had 2 road sweepers, but did not currently have a road cleaning machine. She added that if there were any particular problems in the town centre that need attending to then let our team know.

The Head of Operations – Community Services added that businesses taking personal responsibility for the outside of their premises was a good idea and that was the mind-set that the local authority hoped to instil and will look at ways to approach instilling this mind set into local businesses as a way to improve the cleanliness of streets.

A Member stated that there was something called a Street Litter Control Notice that required the owners or occupiers of businesses to take steps to both minimise and clear up any litter that had come about as a result of their commercial or retail activities. This may be something to look into for the borough. The Leader agreed that this was something that should be looked in to.

Cllr Prescott explained that in Ogmore Valley there had been a number of areas where the weed spraying had taken no effect when it was undertaken in May. The Cleaner Streets & Waste Contract Manager asked Cllr Prescott to let the team know the specific locations of the weeds and it will be dealt with.

Cllr Chapel asked if any publication had been done on 3GS enforcement officers patrolling the Borough as he had not seen any advertising of this. He also asked if any fixed penalty notices could be issued for dog fouling.

The Cleaner Streets & Waste Contract Manager stated that the 3GS Enforcement Officers would engage with members of the public to inform them of the proper procedures. She added that it was difficult to issue a fixed penalty notice to an owner because that required the officer to witness first-hand the owner avoiding picking up the dog mess and walking away.

She added that with regards to publicising this, the team are awaiting more figures from fixed penalty notices from other means of littering so that they can build a case and be able to put together a proper statement which included figures.

The Leader added that the publication of personal details would not be the case, however, the general location of the offenses would be publicised so that the public knew the range of areas that the offenses took place and people were being fined to ensure deterrence of future offending.

Cllr Chapel asked if there was a specific place where they as well as the public can report offending hotspots.

The Cleaner Streets & Waste Contract Manager stated that this could be reported directly to Clean up the county in BCBC. The team could then direct 3GS to these hotspots.

The Leader thanked the suggestions and comments from members of the Forum and thanked the Officers who presented the reports today. He also thanked Town and Community Councillors for making the Love it don’t trash it scheme so effective.

RESOLVED: That the Town and Community Council Forum Noted the report.