The Local Services Director and Local
Services and Neighbourhood Services Divisional Manager
were in attendance to provide verbal updates about any key recent,
ongoing and/or future planned Local Services work and to respond to
issues raised by members.
Neighbourhood Services
Mr S Wardle, Neighbourhood Services Divisional Manager
provided an update as follows:
Grass Cutting
- Grass cutting remains on
target and the required standard of
between 10 to 13 grass cuts in all areas should be
achieved.
- There were challenging periods with near
perfect conditions for grass and weed growth but teams had recovered
well.
- In Blyth they were on cut 10 and cut 9
in Ashington areas.
- Street sweeping was still on the usual schedule
but was expected to move over to leaf hot spots in the near future.
Winter Works
- Winter planning was in place which
included all routine path edging, shrub bed pruning and hedge/tree work however any
suggestions from Councillors were
welcomed.
Weeds
- Weeds had proved difficult this
year throughout the whole County but particularly
within Ashington, Blyth and
Newbiggin.
- The third and final round of weed treatment
activity to hard surfaces was on-going at the time and details
of locations being covered were available if
requested.
- Staff had been deployed with some new
weed ripping equipment which seemed to be working well, but was very labour intensive to use and was therefore
being deployed to tackle particular
problem areas.
Glyphosate alternative trial
- The trial was coming to end with one more
treatment to be done in the area.
- All results were being recorded and a
note of the outcome of the trial would be produced that
could be shared with members.
Waste Collections
- There were some staff shortages due to Covid
and some minor vehicle breakdowns had also caused
difficulties, however residual recycling and garden
waste collections had gone well.
- Income from garden waste had exceeded target with
many residents buying into the scheme.
- Income from commercial and bulk waste had also
exceeded target.
- Teams were continuing to review current
rounds and were to evaluate the effect of new houses on
the collections. Also, they were to review the
rounds in regards to the
increased uptake of garden waste to assist with budget
and service planning for next year.
- Bottle recycling facilities were in high demand
and the collections from bottle banks had to be increased
to meet this.
- Bulky waste services were also in high demand and
extra time slots had been added in order
to reduce waiting times for collections. The
service was also being operated for an additional
day per week on overtime to meet the
demand.
In response to questions the following information was
provided:
- A third weed treatment spray
was taking place and it was highlighted that specific
problem areas could be targeted with mechanical weed
rippers if needed. It was always going to be a challenge
as the chemical used required the weather to
be calm and dry and the weeds to be visible
as it is a contact weedkiller that has to be applied directly to the surface
of the weeds and wet or windy weather can
cause the chemicals to drift risking damage to other
nearby vegetation or be washed off the leaves before it
had chance to take effect. Residents
paid Council Tax and for enhanced services and expected a
better service. Comments were noted.
- Resident’s taking pride in their
community and undertaking activities like litter picking or
clearing weeds from the footways outside their homes was
not to replace the Council’s work but an addition.
Pride in the County was always encouraged and the more
people that had an active involvement in improving the
area they lived in, the better it was for
everyone.
- A walkaround with Local Services was requested by
members and this had taken place. Members identified areas
that needed to be focused on. Whilst it was noted at the
time that Neighbourhood Services staff were still
in the process of undertaking weed treatment and removal
activity through the area, there had been no updates from
officers regarding the work. Ashington Town Council was providing
additional funds to deliver enhanced services, but it was not
clear to some County Councillors what the funds were being
used for .
- It was requested that Officers provide a note
on their thoughts from the walkaround with members and what plans
they would put in place from it.
Thanks were conveyed to officers for
all their hard work throughout the difficult
challenges.
RESOLVED that the information be noted and issues set out in
the bullet points above be followed up.
Highways Services
Mr M Carle, Lead Highways Delivery
manager provided an update as follows:
All inspectors were deployed and carrying out
inspections and maintenance crews were out continuously fixing
potholes, doing repairs and making safe
category 1 defects.
The gully emptier was fully deployed and
had dealt with all reported issues.
Larger tarmac patching had been carried out in the following
locations:
- Ashbourne Crescent
- Ashington Woodhorn Road, Newbiggin
- Brierly Road, Blyth
- Thropton Avenue,
Blyth
Cycle and footway patching had been identified
by the highways inspector and a programme had been put in place to start later
that month.
Drainage improvements had also been identified in
several areas and a programme was expected to be drawn
together in the coming weeks dependent on meetings with street
works and traffic management.
Winter maintenance was being planned for the
21/22 season, rock salt was
being delivered cross the County after a large delivery to the
Port of Blyth. Work was on-going with ICL to ensure there was
a constant level of delivery to reach the 36,000 tonne stockpile required for the start
of the winter. All routes were being verified for a
roll out of Exactrackwhich was the new
in-cab automated gritting IT system. This was going
to provide a sat nav function to guide drivers around each
route whilst also being connected to the spreading equipment so
that the spread rates and patterns were fully automated
and correct for the type of road being travelled at
that time. This would give a consistent approach to the
treatment of the gritting network, increased the
resilience of drivers as resources
could be moved seamlessly across the
County. The Exactrack system k was also able to
give activity reports which could be used to defend
litigation. Nine new gritters were also on order and expected
to be delivered in the coming months
In response to questions the following information was
provided:
- In new build properties streetlights were
only the responsibility of the Council once the road had been
adopted. The comments would be passed along to development
control regarding the streets highlighted.
- Adoption of roads were dependent on the progress
of the development. Most contractors put in place
the road network for the new development but leave the final
wearing course off to avoid it being damaged by
construction traffic until they complete the majority
of house building work and only upon completion
of this then focus on getting the road to an
adoptable state. Up until that point it was the developers responsibility to ensure it was
properly maintained. Concerns over adoption
status were to be passed onto the highway
development management team in
planning.
- Station Road – it was acknowledged that
the use of pavior block parking bays was creating
on-going maintenance issues and an alternative approach
was being put in place for a longer lasting
replacement.
- Spine Road lights were out due to multiple
failures which would lend itself to a power fault which falls
under Northern Power Grid. However it would be passed on to be
actioned.
- Although it was not in written policy it is
communicated with teams that the salt bins should be emptied before
filled with new salt.
- There was a request to find out who owned the road
from Morpeth Road School,
Blyth to Chestnut Avenue as there were concerns about the traffic
whilst children walked to school. The adoption records were going
to be looked at.