Agenda and minutes

Apologies had been received from Councillors Mary O’Connor and Michael White. Councillor Judy Kelly attended in place of Councillor White.

There were no declarations of interests notified.

It was confirmed that all items on the agenda marked as Part 1 would be considered in public.

The minutes of the meeting held on 30 July 2012 were agreed as an accurate record and signed by the Chairman.

• Paul Richards – Green Spaces, Sports and Leisure Senior Manager, London Borough of Hillingdon
• Dave Corby – Green Spaces & Cemeteries Manager, London Borough of Harrow

The Chairman welcomed Paul Richards, the Council’s Green Spaces, Sports & Leisure Senior Manager and Dave Corby, Green Spaces & Cemeteries Manager from Harrow Council to the Committee’s first witness session.

Officers advised that maintenance of the Council’s cemeteries and burial grounds were carried out by ground maintenance contractors.

In the North of the Borough this work was noted to be undertaken by Enterprise PLC and Connaught originally performed this task in the South of the Borough. However, due to financial difficulties, Connaught re-emerged as Fountain until January 2012 when it went into administration. Office Cleaning Company (OCS) now assisted with maintenance on an interim basis. It was explained that OCS struggled with their assistance and consequently standards were not as would be expected.

The Committee was informed that Green Spaces provided grave digging for burying and maintained cemeteries on behalf of Bereavement Service. However, as it was found that this way of working was not working out successfully, changes had now been made so that Green Spaces managed anything that was green and growing and Bereavements Services now looked after the administrative aspects and Cemetery infrastructure.

Members were advised that Green Spaces provided maintenance services to the four Council owned cemeteries which included Cherry Lane, Shepiston Lane, Harlington, Hayes; Hillingdon & Uxbridge, Hillingdon Hill, Hillingdon; Northwood, Chesnut Avenue, Northwood and West Drayton, Harmondsworth, West Drayton.

Green spaces also provided maintenance services to the Councils four burial grounds at Harlington, St Peter’s way, Harlington; Harmondsworth, Harmondsworth Village; Victoria lane, Harlington and Woodland, rear of West Drayton Cemetery.

In addition, officers advised that the ground maintenance of St. Mary's Churchyard, Hayes was also carried out by the Council’s ground maintenance contractors.

Could the contract not have been taken away when OCS went into difficulties?

Officers advised that it was imperative at the time to ensure business continuity and as cemetery maintenance was a ‘business critical’ function it was therefore important to keep the service running in the short term, giving time to look at the long term options.

It was explained that when the company re-emerged as Enterprise, the service provided was acceptable and it only became an issue when OCS took over, compounded by the very wet summer. Members were advised that the service provision had started to improve.

The Committee indicated that the same level of service provision that had been observed in the North of the Borough during the site visit should be provided also in the South of the Borough.

Who oversees/checks the work that had been completed by contractors?

Officers explained that the process that had been inherited was that Green Spaces provided a service for the Bereavement Service, as this was clearly not working; this process had now been reviewed and addressed. A winter work programme was now in place with the aim of working systematically area by area to clear off overgrown ivy and thick bushes.

It was reported that OCS had taken on the work and was currently being paid  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

Resolved

The Committee agreed the Work Programme for 2012/13.

Resolved

The Committee agreed the Forward Plan.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Cllr Judith Kelly, Champion for the Arts gave a brief update on recent developments related to the Committee’s Review of Mitigating the Environmental Effects of Telecommunication Masts and Cabinets in the London Borough of Hillingdon and beyond. It was announced that following the closing date in July 2012 of a competition to decorated British Telecom (BT) cabinets (Green boxes), 3 designs had been chosen, in consultation with BT (Out of 50 entries) to decorate 3 BT boxes situated in Uxbridge High street.

Cllr Kelly advised that there were intentions to liaise with Street Scene to see whether other designs could be placed on streets in other areas of the Borough.