Decision details

To approve amendments to the Council’s grounds maintenance schedule on a trial basis for 3 months, after which period the trial will be reviewed formally and a report submitted to the Cabinet for a decision on the future arrangements.

The Council’s budget for 2017/2018 requires £432,000 savings to be delivered from within its Streetcare Contract. A number of savings proposals are being developed, with grounds maintenance the first to be proposed formally given the grass cutting season is due to commence shortly.

A review of grounds maintenance arrangements identified efficiencies that could be made within this area of the contract, if staff were developed to be multi-skilled and if machinery was upgraded. Therefore it was deemed prudent to identify a more efficient scheduling of work.

The level of annual savings attached to this proposal, if successful, will be £100,000 per annum in year 1 moving to £125,000 in future years. For the 3 month trial period the level of savings deliverable would be £37,500. If resource is to be added back into the service then these savings figures will be subject to change.

The savings will be realised through Amey developing their grounds maintenance operatives to be multi-skilled, which will no longer require them to employ 11 x agency operatives each year on a seasonal basis to solely carry out strimming duties and attend to hedges/shrubs etc.

This reduction in operatives will also be supported by a move to more practical and robust cutting machinery on urban routes, which will provide a more reliable, consistent and effective finish in a variety of climatic conditions and grass lengths.

Given this is a trial arrangement, the Council has agreed with Amey for a proportion of the full potential savings figure to be retained by Amey in the event of additional resource being required within the 3 month trial period. If this contingency resource is unused or partly used then the remaining value will be passed back to the Council accordingly.

Further options will be developed in time for inclusion within the Cabinet report.