Public performance reports

Street cleaning and grounds maintenance

The Council Plan Connect, outlines our objectives for 2022-27. Connect Outcomes should not be seen in isolation, they interact with each other and as we achieve success in one, we move closer to success in others. In delivering our vision to ‘improve the quality of life of everyone in South Lanarkshire’ our priorities show how our work links with our partners including our Community Planning Partners.

For daily updates, stories and what’s going on in your area, visit our information and news website South Lanarkshire View.

Each year we produce Annual Performance Spotlights which summarise how we have performed in achieving our Connect Outcomes. To complement these we have created a suite of individual Public Performance Reports which focus on key areas of council business. This report outlines the performance in relation to our street cleaning and grounds maintenance service and how this links to our communities and environment outcome.

South Lanarkshire Council aims to ensure that the environment is kept to a high standard for the benefit of the residents of, and visitors to, the South Lanarkshire area. One way in which we look after the wider environment is through our street cleaning service and grounds maintenance service and through the maintenance of our open spaces, parks, play areas and cemeteries.

Follow the link to learn about the full list of services covered by Street care and cleaning.

A comprehensive new Litter Strategy was also approved by the council in September 2022.

How clean are our streets? – Target 95.5%
What this means	This indicator provides a measure of the standard of street cleanliness in South Lanarkshire and is based on 2 council inspections and an independent inspection of a sample of streets and other relevant land for which the council is responsible. It measures the percentage of streets achieving the Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) Standard A and B, that is no litter or predominately free of litter and refuse. It therefore provides a good measure of the percentage of streets considered ‘acceptably clean’.
Why this matters	This indicator is a good measure of whether we are achieving our aim of ensuring high quality streets, parks and other public areas so that South Lanarkshire is a place where people want to live, work, visit and invest.
Our performance and how we compare	Comparator	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	Are we improving?
	SLC	94.1%	92.1%	92.3%	Yes
	Scotland	90.1%	89.7%	90.6%	Yes
How we have performed in improving this public service	Introduction of the litter strategy has allowed the council to develop and implement a number of key actions to improve street cleanliness in South Lanarkshire. This is achieved through development of closer working relationships within the service as well as with other council services to address problem areas such as littering and fly tipping.

Satisfaction with street cleaning:

How good is our grounds maintenance service? – Target 72
What this means	The Land Audit Management System (LAMS) is used across the UK to monitor grounds maintenance. It requires local authorities to undertake inspections over a given monitoring period. The surveyor is checking on the quality of the grounds work and if there is evidence of litter, dog fouling, graffiti, vandalism and overflowing litter bins in the areas. A LAMS score is then provided, establishing an overall picture of the standard of maintenance and quality of the local authority’s environment.
Why this matters	This indicator is a good measure of whether we are achieving our aim of ensuring high quality streets, parks and other public areas so that South Lanarkshire is a place where people want to live, work, visit and invest.
Our performance and how we compare	Comparator	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	Are we improving?
	SLC	72	71.3	72	Yes
	Scotland	N/A	N/A	N/A	Yes
How we have performed in improving this public service	By ensuring that all resources are being utilized and managed effectively we will continue to provide high levels of front-line services to ensure we provide good clean well maintained open spaces.

Follow these links to our website for further information on local parks, Countryside rangers, Getting outdoors.

Satisfaction with local parks and open spaces:

We will take forward the following key area of improvement:

The new Litter Strategy will be officially launched early in 2023 and will be accessible on our website. A Litter Strategy Steering Group has been established to monitor progress of the associated action plan.

Resource Plans are prepared each year by all Resources to outline the key developments they intend to take forward in the year. Performance and actions relating to the street cleaning service and grounds maintenance service can be found in the Community and Enterprise Resource Plan.

Twice a year, performance reports are presented to council committees on progress against the Resource Plans. In addition, reports detailing progress against the Council Plan Connect Priorities are prepared - see the Quarter 2 (September) and Quarter 4 (March - year end) progress reports for further information.

More information on our outcomes can be found in the Council Plan Connect and also the Annual Performance Spotlights.

Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) allows councils to work together, to use performance information in a way which will help understand variations, share knowledge, expertise and good practice, with a view to making improvements. For more information and links relating to this framework go to the 'Benchmarking' paragraph on the Improvement and how we compare page on our website.

The information contained within this report reflects the position based on the data available at the time of publication (March 2024).