Agenda item
Follow Up Review on Brent High Street Initiatives
- Meeting of Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee, Tuesday 5 September 2017 7.00 pm (Item 5.)
This report contains:
• An analysis on how have the town centre managers performed since being appointed;
• An analysis of how the Digital High Streets project is performing; and
• A report on how uniformed litter patrol officers are performing after being brought in-house.
Minutes:
Councillors Tatler (Lead Member for Regeneration, Growth, Employment and Skills) and Southwood (Lead Member for Environment) presented a report from the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment which provided a performance analysis of the newly recruited town centre managers, the digital high streets project and the in-house uniformed litter patrol service. It was noted that Members of the committee had undertaken a site visit to Harlesden high street to support their scrutiny of the various Brent High Street Initiatives and that two Town Centre Managers Grace Nelson and Rubina Charalambous were in attendance at the meeting to aid discussion.
The committee discussed the report and questioned how a place-based approach avoided becoming Wembley or Harlesden centric. Members sought further information on the establishment of Business Improvement Districts (BID) and the process of selecting areas appropriate for these. Questions were raised regarding the role of the Town Centre Managers and whether performance indicators for these positions included street cleanliness. Noting the excellent work being done by the Town Centre Managers, a member queried whether there was a greater focus on strategic rather than practical developments. The committee further queried whether the intention was to extend the provision of town centre managers to more areas of the borough.
Discussing the uniformed litter patrol service, a member commented that the deployment of the team was not sufficiently ambitious, should be more imaginative and that there should be a street cleanliness performance indicator. Another member of the committee queried what would be required to support the expansion of the team. Questions were raised regarding the disparity between the number of fixed penalty notices issued and those paid and what actions could be taken to improve the timeliness of payments. Further queries were raised regarding the hours of operation and the responsibility for educating residents on appropriate waste disposal. An update was sought regarding the task group recommendation on local community champions. Clarity was sought regarding the level of investigations undertaken into illegally dumped waste, the use of signs and other advertising to emphasise a strong message against this offence, and collaboration with teams dealing with landlord licensing.
In response to the queries raised, Councillor Tatler emphasised that the town centres were defined within the strategy approved by Cabinet. This strategy set out seventeen town centres in total, with nine priority areas identified as most in need of support. Other areas were recognised as running effectively without council assistance, though support would be provided where required. Matthew Dibben (Head of Employment, Skills and Enterprise) advised that interest in BIDs had been expressed by a number of associations and the viability of these would be explored. Councillor Tatler emphasised that strengthening the infrastructure of Town Centres made those centres more viable for BIDs.
Addressing members’ questions on Town Centre Managers, Councillor Tatler explained that an important part of their role was to establish relationships with businesses and identify issues affecting their respective areas. The Town Centre Managers explained that issues were logged daily, often relating to environmental services, such as illegal dumping and licensing issues. Quick resolutions to these issues were achieved helping to build trust with businesses and other stakeholders. The look and feel of the highstreets was a top priority and a lot of work had been done to ensure streets were cleaner and shopfronts were freshened up. Councillor Southwood explained that five neighbourhood managers had been recruited to cover the five Brent Connects areas and confirmed in response to a query that it was an aspiration to have five town centre managers. Before and after profiles, including photographic evidence, could be provided within the report which would be submitted to Cabinet in due course.
Councillor Southwood addressed the committee’s questions on the uniformed litter patrol team, emphasising that it was currently in its infancy and was not yet up to capacity. The role of the Town Centre managers in providing targeted information to assist in deploying the team to maximum efficiency was highlighted. Chris Whyte explained that there was a corporate Performance Indicator for Veolia (Brent’s Public Realm Contractor) and the uniformed litter patrol team supported Veolia in keeping the borough’s streets clean. Consideration would be given to how this indicator could be divided to reflect the different but complimentary strands of work. Councillor Southwood confirmed that it was envisaged that this team would develop and grow over time and that the data collected via the neighbourhood managers would help to inform any decisions about how best to meet the needs of these areas going forward. It had been determined that the role of community champions was best served by community groups, however this did not preclude the possibility of appointing individuals to this role in the future.
Dennis Lewis (Waste Enforcement Manager) advised that the disparity between FPNs issued and those paid could in part be addressed by the inability of officers to receive payment at the point of issue. However, the team now had the technology to enable payment to be taken as soon as an FPN was issued and it was anticipated that this would help to address this lag in payment. Members’ attention was drawn to the data provided on waste enforcement investigations and the committee was informed that signs were put up as part of the work of the patrol team regarding illegal dumping and the team worked closely with private sector housing.
RESOLVED: that the report and update provided by Officers and Lead Members be noted.
Supporting documents:
- Follow Up Review on Brent High Street Initiatives, item 5. PDF 170 KB
- Appendix 1 - 12 Month Plans, item 5. PDF 72 KB
- Appendices 2 & 3 - Litter Patrol Case Studies, item 5. PDF 37 KB