Actions from West Area Panel meeting 15.2.23

Deadline for staff to respond: 5pm on 26^th April

All staff please note Date ACTION completed refers to when the requested action is done (or planned to be done if outstanding) not this form is filled in.

Ref & Date Outstanding actions raised	Action	Officer	Response including what is completed & outstanding	Is Action Complete or Outstanding?	Date Action completed or planned completion date?
WAO1 (14.12.22)	Resident question W3.3 to be looked into further as response was inadequate – Housing officers requested to speak to CityClean to coordinate	Melissa Francis	Question W3.3 copied for reference Issue: Some areas have not had any street cleaning over the autumn months and it has been infrequent everywhere. This means pavements have become covered in leaves and are extremely slippery and dangerous in the wet and icy weather. This is particularly difficult for anyone with mobility problems and wheelchair users who can find the pavements too dangerous to use. West residents feel that central Brighton & Hove are better serviced than the outlying estates. Background: None supplied. Action requested: Ask for a report on: · The council has a duty of care to ensure pavements are safe, which isn’t being met at the moment. What plans are there to meet this requirement? · How often were the streets swept in September/October/November? · Is it done more frequently in the autumn months? · Is street sweeping done less in out-lying areas? Officer Response: Officer contact details:  Melissa.Francis@brighton-hove.gov.uk Q. The council has a duty of care to ensure pavements are safe, which isn’t being met at the moment. What plans are there to meet this requirement?  Across Brighton and Hove, there are 20,000 gullies and approximately 600 kilometres of roads which gives an indication of the size of the challenge keeping gullies, roads, pavements and channels free of leaves.  Street Cleansing has teams of operatives and mechanical sweepers who sweep the roads according to schedules.  Leaf fall is continuous and areas that have been swept the day before can be covered by leaves again the next morning which means it is not possible to keep areas completely free of leaves. Q. How often were the streets swept in September/ October/ November? Is it done more frequently in the autumn months? During the weeding and leafing season, adjustments are made across the service to respond to leaves/weeds.  Street Cleansing have prioritised the areas with the most leafing and areas that are hot spots for flooding. Q. Is street sweeping done less in out-lying areas? The East and West of the city is covered 5 days a week, the city centre is covered 7 days a week as it is a high footfall area. Street sweeping includes leaves, weeds and litter, and because there is a lot of litter in the city centre, it requires attention 7 days a week. END --------------------------------------- Answer to WA01: We do not have sufficient officer capacity to provide this detail. Further explanation would require going into detail about the cleaning regime for each area in the West which is complex and requires adjustments based on health and safety priorities.	Complete	04.04.23
WAO2 (14.12.22)	Resident question W3.4 to be looked into further as response was inadequate	Sam Warren & Justine Harris	Question W3.4 copied below for reference:- Issue: West residents are concerned that Estate Walkabouts, unlike the previous Estate Inspections, they do not include the interior of the buildings.    Background: None supplied.  Action requested: Interior of buildings to be included in Estate Walkabouts  Officer Response: Officer contact details: Marcus.richardson@brighton-hove.gov.uk  The Estate Walkabouts are focused on identifying what environmental improvements can be delivered to estates across the city to help improve overall satisfaction for residents. The focus is on items like planters/planting, seating, bike storage or bin stores etc. This is due to there being other capital investment programmes that concentrate on delivery of external and internal repairs and decoration to the Council’s housing stock.  The Council conducts internal surveys of council blocks for our internal decoration programme which runs every year, but as we have over 1,200 properties with communal areas, we aren’t able to survey every block on a yearly basis. When these surveys of blocks are conducted, the information we collect is just a snapshot of the condition at that time and can change rapidly dependant on external factors of the building and resident use, and we have prioritised the external elements of the blocks in a good state of repair, as leaking roofs or penetrating damp affect the internal areas of the blocks more than daily use by residents. We also carry out multiple other visits to the common ways of blocks on a regular basis, such as fire risk assessments and communal electrical testing, and any immediate issues within blocks are reported following these visits as well for action.  In addition, the council will start later this year carrying out stock condition surveys of blocks across the city, these surveys will be a rolling piece of work and will record the current condition of the housing stock and will go towards planning future years’ capital investment programmes such as internal decorations.  If there are specific blocks that residents have questions or concerns about, we will happily arrange for a survey and feedback the information/condition collected and give an indication of when the internal decoration is due to happen.  Please email hiamenquiries@brighton-hove.gov.uk END ------------------------------------------------------------------ Answer to WA02: Officer contact details: Marcus.richardson@brighton-hove.gov.uk  The estate walkabouts were set up with the intention of delivering small independent pieces of work that fell outside of the remit of our usual capital investment programmes (like roofs, windows, internal/external repairs, and decoration etc) to help improve estates for the residents. These walkabouts can take multiple officers up to 2-3 hours per walkabout to look and collect information (including travel as well), and then there is another process whereby quotes for work are gathered, residents are consulted (where needed) and work is arranged/managed etc. In the Housing Investment and Asset Management department we have a separate asset management team which includes staff that carry out stock condition surveys of the council's housing stock. The surveys that the asset management team carry out uploads information directly into the council’s asset management system using mobile devices, and this in turn influences the council’s capital investment programmes each year. The staff working on the estate walkabouts and EIB work do not use the asset management system for their work, so having them gather this additional information would increase the amount of time required to carry out the walkabouts and reduce the amount of work they can deliver as a result, it is also duplicating work that the asset team carry out with their stock condition surveys. As mentioned previously, if there is a specific query regarding the condition of a block's internal decoration or general enquiry regarding when a block will receive internal decoration, we can respond to let residents know.
WAO3 (14.12.22)	Contact Tomas Szalma regarding placement of bins on the Old Shoreham Road and whether it could be moved closer to Bellingham Crescent. *Query whether this had been completed therefore kept on list WA5*	Justine Harris	Tomas Szalma responded to this question in November 2022. Please see response below: On the Old Shoreham Road, near Bellingham Crescent, we used to have a bin next to the railing. However, due to the close proximity to the traffic lights, that lead to Boundary Road and Hangleton Road we experienced safety issues related to blocking the lane and immediately stop from traffic behind that causes a build-up of traffic leading to and through the lights. So, for reasons of health and safety we moved the bin 30 meters down the road. This change allows traffic time to compensate for the vehicle that has stopped, while the operative changes the bin. I am attaching pictures supporting the response. The first picture was taken towards traffic and showing the railing where the bin used to be. In the red circle is the busy traffic junction with traffic lights system. This junction is less than 20 meters away. The second picture was taken in the direction of the traffic, showing the same railing and where BHCC vehicle is safely parked. Beside the vehicle is the new location of the bin. It is approximately 30 meters further down. This can be easily walked and dispose of your rubbish and it is safe to change the bin.	Complete	Nov 22
WA4	Justine Harris to work with Rob Walker to bring a report to the Area Panel meeting in May detailing City Parks contractual requirements, if they were met and what could be done to improve the delivery of the service.	Justine Harris & Rob Walker	This report is being prepared and will be presented at the next Area Panel	Carry over
WA05 (12.10.22)	Justine Harris to contact Patricia Weller regarding weed growth on her estate.	Justine Harris	A verbal update will be given at Area Panel.	Ongoing