Agenda item

The Cabinet considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place) and the Director of Environment which noted that clean streets and tackling issues of fly tipping and littering that blight the local communities remain a priority for the Borough of Oldham’s residents and for the Council. The second iteration of Don’t Trash Oldham (DTO) campaign had commenced in October 2022, and in addition to community engagement, it also focused on betterment/transforming communities by working with ward members and this was supported by a limited budget for each area, which could be used to realise the requests of Councillors.

Therefore, the submitted report detailed the outcomes and achievements of the Transformation campaign, examined the lessons learned (what has worked and what could be improved) and proposed some new measures/targeted interventions for the future, which strike a balance between new ways of working and addressing the ongoing environmental challenges faced by the residents of Oldham and the Councils approach in addressing such challenges.

The DTO campaign had commenced in September 2021, with the aim of cleaning all council owned alleys and road infrastructure of fly tipped/dumped waste and litter across the borough, on a ward-by-ward basis, spanning a full calendar year. The first year of the campaign concluded on 30^th October 2022 with the end of year findings reported at that time.

From October 2022 to October 2023, the DTO campaign morphed into a Betterment phase to transform neighbourhoods and build on the legacy work from year one. This was backed up by intensive enforcement and clean up activity in highlighted ‘hotspot’ neighbourhoods. The accepted aim of this programme was to ‘make a difference’. This included visibly improving areas, ensuring detailed attention and physical improvements that were not always deliverable as part of routine work.

For the transforming neighbourhoods’ elements of programme to work effectively, a material budget of £3,000 per ward was allocated. To understand the local area and ward member priorities for the focus of the work, meetings were held between the Communities Team, ward members and officers from the Environmental Services to understand the requests and agree what was deliverable within the timescale and budget. Meetings typically took place a month before the teams were due to visit the locality and work in each area typically lasted four weeks.

The submitted report provided a summary of the work completed boroughwide – this includes details of engagement with members, the work completed, waste removed from wards, a summary of the enforcement action undertaken, and the wider improvement(s) achieved because of the additional funding. Finally, the report also outlined proposals on how the legacy of DTO/Betterment campaign will be embedded and what this will look like moving forward. There is a recognition that given the work completed over the last two iterations of DTO/Betterment, a sustainable approach is needed to ensure previous gains are not lost and a more durable model is adopted moving forward, which meets the needs of the borough, the residents and ensures a clean environment for all.

Options/alternatives considered:

The submitted report dealt with a number of different options:

a.    Option 1 - No further financial resource required, this option can be funded from existing budget resource.

b.    Option 2 - No further financial resource required, this option can be funded from existing budget resource.

c.    Option 3 - No further financial resource required, this option can be funded from existing budget resource.

d.    Option 4 – This option is being dealt with by a separate Delegated Officer Report named “Gulley Cleaning Review and Restructure”. The additional financial resource required for this option has been calculated at £43,060.

e.    Option 5 – No further financial resource required, this option can be funded from existing budget resource.

f.     Option 6 – It is noted that Option 6 will require a significant financial resource due to the number of unadopted alleys boroughwide. Therefore, if a decision is taken to approve this option, this will form part of a separate report to fully identify the financial resource required.

Resolved:

1.    that the Cabinet notes the achievements of the Don’t Trash Oldham/Transformation Campaign across the borough between 2022 and 2023.

2.    That the Cabinet approves the priorities listed in Section 4 of the report, which aim to provide a sustainable and deliverable legacy for the DTO/Transformation campaigns and outline key areas of focus moving forward.

3.    That the Cabinet agrees to delegate to Director of Environment and the Portfolio Holder for Neighbourhoods, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, the prioritisation of funding for the delivery of priorities.