Street Scene Interesting Facts

Street Scene are responsible for:

Grounds maintenance

  • One and a half million square metres of grass
  • 90,000 square metres of hedges
  • 30,000 square metres of standard shrubs
  • 5,500 square metres of bedding
  • 865 park benches (rising to well in excess of 1000 benches maintained by Street Scene)
  • 606 council tenants’ gardens
  • 560 hanging baskets
  • maintenance and management of 65 play areas (48 amenities, 2 town councils, 15 housing) which includes 4 skate parks
  • 3 open cemeteries plus maintenance of 12 closed churchyards, management of unstable memorials
  • responsibility for Council owned trees

Refuse collection and Recycling

  • waste collection from over 62,000 households every week
  • recyclable material collections from over 62,000 households every fortnight
  • 882 special waste collections in 2006/2007
  • 523 weekly clinical waste collections in 2006/2007
  • approximately 290 abandoned vehicle incidents 2006/2007
  • management of 21 recycling bank sites

Street and Public Building Cleansing

  • 14 square kilometres of roads, footways, beaches and car parks to be cleansed
  • cleansing of 54 public conveniences
  • cleansing of  Sports Centres, Council Offices, other public buildings and housing communal areas
  • emptying of 125 rural litter bins and approximately 780 urban/rural litter bins
  • emptying of 312 dog waste bins
  • maintenance and cleansing of 26 housing sewage treatment works (also replacement/adoption programme with SWW)
  • attending 273 fly tipping occurrences in 2006/2007

General asset maintenance and management (some on behalf of other Directorates)

  • general infrastructure maintenance of 56 car parks
  • general maintenance of 59 bus shelters
  • general maintenance of 38 public conveniences
  • general maintenance of outdoor lighting at 83 locations (incl. parks and gardens, seafronts, car parks, footways and some roads)
  • maintenance of 6 clocks (incl. 3 clock towers)
  • maintenance of in excess of 25 public shelters (not bus shelters)
  • maintenance of 6 flagpoles
  • emptying of 6 petrol/silt interceptors
  • management of approximately 400 beach hut sites which includes 125 permanent huts and 52 erected and removed at start and end of summer season
  • inspection and clearing of 45 flood alleviation schemes includes gravel traps, culvert grills and flood channels (incl. 2 pumping stations at Stoke Canon and Lympstone)
  • general management of 2 main works depots (Manstone, Sidmouth and Camperdown, Exmouth) and a number of smaller Grounds Maintenance yards. Includes management of Flogas tank at Manstone
  • general maintenance of all street name plates (quantity unknown but is in the thousands)
  • general maintenance of a large variety of general signage (quantity unknown but substantial)
  • variety of other street furniture including picnic benches, barbecues, fencing, barriers, gates, bollards, feature fountains, outdoor water taps (seasonal), raised planters, water/electric meters, deck chair supply and storage
  • maintenance and management of structures including Jacobs Ladder, Sidmouth, in excess of 12 bridges (4 concerning the highway over the Budleigh Salterton linear walkway together with other footbridges over this walkway), a number over River Sid, the Byes and the Glen, Sidmouth, the Glen and Gissage at Honiton, Land of Canaan at Ottery St Mary,  Phear Park, Exmouth. This list is not definitive
  • inspection and maintenance of 58 non feasance sites on behalf of Housing
  • ongoing road adoption work for Housing Department.
  • minor project work for various Directorates including Revenue, Special Items and Capital Expenditure (can be significant amounts of work but varies)
  • major Capital project work generally in association with outside specialist consultants (generally significant amounts of work but varies)
  • coastal protection 16.71 kilometres of defended frontage and 45.99 kilometres of undefended frontage (includes beach management)

Other services provided

  • emergency planning
  • advice to planning on ground/landscape/play area issues
  • provision of technical information/advice to other Directorates, Members, organisations and public including inspection of work carried out under Rural Aid Grants
  • special events support and liaison
  • public protection such as gas migration monitoring
  • supply of maroons for Remembrance Day
  • passenger ferry licensing

Partnerships

Effective and sustained partnerships are important for managing the complex distribution of ownership and responsibilities for the public realm and for achieving improvements to service delivery.

Customers

  • Every household in the District has its refuse anf Recycling collected .
  • All residents and visitors are potential users of the streets and public buildings we clean and the parks and open spaces we maintain.
  • There are some services where the numbers of users are more limited, e.g. the dog owners who use the dog bins we empty.

Stakeholders:

  • The 68 parish and town councils in the District.
  • Community groups such as community composters.

Partners:

  • SITA.
  • Environment Agency, DEFRA and HSE.
  • Devon County Council, the other 7 district councils in Devon and all the town councils and some of the parish councils in the District.
  • Britain in Bloom
  • ENCAMs The organisation behind the “Keep Britain Tidy” campaign.
  • Lyme Bay Shoreline Management Group
  • Devon Environmental Services Management Group
  • A number of independent contractors

Parks and Gardens:

A Parks and Gardens survey was carried out in 2003. This comprised a face to face interview of users of seven parks within the District: Jubilee Gardens, Beer; Beach Gardens, Exmouth; Seafield Gardens, Seaton; Connaught Gardens, Sidmouth; The Green, Budleigh Salterton; Manor Gardens, Exmouth and Windsor Gardens, Seaton.

50% were visitors to the District; of which 38% were from the South West; 43% of all visitors to the parks rated the enjoyment of the experience as 10 out of 10, with 95% of all visitors rating the experience 7 or above.

74% of visitors said cleanliness was very good, a further 15% said cleanliness of the gardens was good, 9% satisfactory and 2% poor.

79% rated the standard of maintenance as very good with further 13% rating maintenance as good. Of the visitors to the gardens 74% said the standard of maintenance was better than the gardens in the towns where they live.

An improvement plan for the parks was drawn up and agreed with local ward members.

Widespread recognition was received from the Town Councils’ for the contribution made by Street Scene Services in the success achieved by towns in the “Britain in Bloom“ competition. Worked with Town Councils’ on bedding plants etc.

Other:

Exmouth Town Council has written to thank the Council for the changes that have been made to the delivery of the Street Scene service with the establishment of the Western Area Team and the positive dialogue that is taking place with key stakeholders in the Town. Positive feedback that Service is recognising town identity with colour schemes for street furniture.

Contribution to a number of partnerships: Crime & Disorder; Exmouth Take Away Forum; Exmouth Tidy Group; and Littleham Play Group.

The Service made a significant contribution to the “Don’t Let Devon Go To Waste” Campaign.

Positive feedback has resulted from the introduction of rigid bins in the Colony area of Exmouth.

Page last updated on 11 September 2007