Renfrewshire Council: the Audit of Best Value and ... - Audit Scotland

Environmental services
Environmental services has a strong performance and customer focus. Performance is amongst
the best Scottish authorities for the cost of refuse collection and several other indicators are above
the Scottish average. Recycling performance has improved significantly under the council’s Waste
Management Plan. Improvements could be made by considering alternative forms and means of
service delivery rather than solely focusing on improving the existing in-house service which has
not been market tested since 1997.
157. The environmental services department has a budget of around £42 million and employs 1,292 staff. It
has a very wide portfolio of services including the commercial operations of waste management,
refuse collection, grounds maintenance, street cleansing, catering, and building cleaning. It also
undertakes statutory enforcement functions concerning trading standards and public health
inspections. SPIs for 2004/05 show:
Refuse collection costs per household are amongst the lowest in Scotland at £36.92 compared
with the average of £49.20. Costs have been kept low through improved route planning and
rationalising commercial waste services.
Refuse disposal costs at £52.36 are also cheaper than the Scottish average of £55.08, but higher
than the average cost of £49.22 for similar urban councils.
Refuse complaints at 15.2 per 1,000 households are significantly lower than the Scottish average
of 35.9. The council’s special uplift facility also appears to perform well, with 93 per cent of
special uplifts being completed in five days. The Scottish average is 83 per cent. Renfrewshire
made over 24,000 special uplifts during 2004/05.
The council’s street cleanliness rating of 67 is below the Scottish average of 70 and in the bottom
quartile. The council is addressing this poorer performance level through identifying litter control
areas to target improved town centre and roadway sweeping.
158. Environmental services uses an integrated service model for its trading operations with joint
management and working arrangements between services such as street cleaning and grounds
maintenance, and also cleaning and catering. This has helped to reduce overheads and improve
service delivery.
159. The service has a particularly strong performance driven culture. This is evidenced by the level of
detail in its integrated business plan for commercial operations which includes financial forecasts,
budget savings, workforce profiling and forecasts, performance review, marketplace assessments,
customer consultation and risk assessment. There is a strong emphasis on quality assurance through
charter mark, ISO 9001 quality management registration, and ISO 9004 benchmarking, for which
environmental services is the only UK organisation to have received a Gold Award. The assessors
noted business planning and consultation as particular strengths.
49