The deadline for questions to be submitted to the Monitoring Officer is Monday 6 October 2025.
Minutes:
Question from Councillor Anne-Marie Moriarty
Could councillors be granted access to the provisional schedule of works for regular cleansing and maintenance carried out by the environmental services team?
Having access to this information would significantly enhance our ability to fulfil our roles effectively. It would reduce the volume of correspondence between councillors and officers, streamline communication, and improve transparency for residents. When residents are informed about when and where work is scheduled, it helps manage expectations and addresses concerns about perceived inconsistencies in service delivery.
While I understand that such schedules are subject to change, having a working version available would still be invaluable. This request aligns with the principles of the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, which supports councillors’ rights to access information necessary for their duties, and with guidance from the Local Government Association on the importance of timely and relevant information for elected members.
Response from the Portfolio Holder for Climate Response, Environment and Energy, Councillor Andy Hadley
Thank you for your question Councillor Moriarty,
We have asked several times for this information to be made available. I have been advised that;
BCP Council’s approach to not publishing schedules is aligned to neighbouring authorities across the region. In theory it provides residents with an in advance schedule from which to remove cars on a known date to aid cleansing, in practice from those that do so it often either a) results in very few residents moving their vehicles or b) residents move them and then are frustrated when a crew don’t appear – this can be for many reasons including
- vehicle breakdowns - sadly frequent due to complexities of the kit
- staffing shortages - LGV drivers are regularly pulled off to support shortages on waste collection crews,
- heavy leaf-fall etc which means they are unable to complete as many roads as may have been advertised,
- wider emergency or emerging issues
- e.g. for our area seasonal pressures with tourists which routinely pulls resources from residential areas due to resourcing limitations
The situation has unfortunately been changing for the worse because with more people working from home, residential streets have more cars parked on them blocking access to sweepers and gulley cleaners, but also, with our changing climate, the period of leaf-fall is now from September to March, whereas it used to be from November to January.
Within BCP all our roads and pavement are being rescheduled for mechanical street cleansing to ensure parity of service across BCP, with historical resource greater in Poole than Bournemouth and Christchurch. I am told that Pre-LGR, Bournemouth went from 6 large sweepers down to only two covering the whole town.
Resources are targeted at areas of greatest need and alignment with Environment Protection Act Code of Practice for Litter & Refuse whereby zoning is applied.? ?This is part of the roll out of in-cab technology within Waste & Cleansing and Environment more generally.? ?
Once the new schedules have been worked a number of times to be able to provide reliable trends, this data will be used to adapt the schedules to reflect which roads and footpaths on the network are able to manage longer periods between sweeps and to identify those locations requiring more frequent cleansing, in order to be able to maintain consistent standards.
It should be possible to make details on historic and intended cleansing frequencies accessible to Councillors and the public via online mapping once these revisions to schedules have been complete.
In the meantime, cleansing requests can be made online via the Report It function for a review by the correct service team.??
Report fallen leaves, pine needles and fir cones | BCP
Supplementary question from Councillor Anne-Marie Moriarty
May I just check what the timeline for this new kind of roll out is going to be in terms of when we will be able to support our residents to have a better understanding of when the schedule will be, do we have a timeline at all?
Response from the Portfolio Holder for Climate Response, Environment and Energy, Councillor Andy Hadley
Thank you for your supplementary question, I am afraid we don’t, we have started rolling out the in cab technology that started in October. The working up of an online and active map is I am aware of is underway for other areas. But I can go away and find out and get the information available to you.
Councillor Toby Slade left the meeting at 9.05pm
Question from Councillor Patrick Canavan
Given the rising cost of food, the waiting lists for allotments across BCP, and the clear benefits allotments bring for healthy eating, mental health, and community wellbeing would the administration commit to conducting a review of current allotment provision, and bring forward proposals to expand access by identifying under-utilised council land, prioritising areas of high demand, and supporting schools and community groups in accessing growing spaces?
Response from the Portfolio Holder for Climate Response, Environment and Energy, Councillor Andy Hadley
Councillor Canavan, thank you for your question, and thank you for taking the trouble to give me advance notice, which was helpful to consider my response.
Providing Allotments and community food growing opportunities is a topic that I have had a long interest in.
With formal allotments, the waiting lists are variable around the area, and that partly depends on whether applicants are seeking space at a specific allotment, some of our smaller sites have a long waiting list, you could be waiting between 1 year and up to 10 years. Many plots have been reduced in size to encourage and support participation, but managing an allotment plot requires a lot of ongoing physical work to maintain, its outdoor gymnastics. About 1/3 of applicants decline the offer when they get to the top of the list.
For some time the team have been working to support the larger allotment associations who self-manage their sites. This has the advantage of greater autonomy, of being able to provide advice and nurturing support to new plot holders, maintaining the shared spaces, cheaper rents, more frequent inspections, and to quickly resolve any issues arising between plot holders, or reallocate plots. There are already 3 self-managed sites in Bournemouth area, and we are working with a Poole site in the process of changing to being self-managed.
Allotments are the one service that must transfer to the lowest level of local government. Longbarrow, which is a self-managed site, transferred to Throop and Holdenhurst Parish Council, and all the Christchurch sites transferred to the new Town or Parish Councils in 2019. Given the Community Governance Review, this would be the wrong time for BCP to be undertaking a review of allotment provision. Any new formal allotment sites need a lot of surveying and preparation, which can be a significant outlay and take time.
However, we are actively supporting informal growing opportunities through community and school gardens, ranging from sites like Tatnam Organic Patch, a community garden I helped found in 1999, Turners Nursery community Orchard, BH15 grow together and others.
Many schools now have growing spaces and/or orchards in their grounds. It does of course depend on having an enthusiastic teacher and/or volunteers to sustain, and often summer holidays reduce access, interest, and thus the crop.
The Parks Foundation are supporting food growing in some of our public parks, including for example raised beds in Alexandra Park and Redhill Park. Sustaining a group to use the grow-zone Raised Beds in Churchill Gardens has been a challenge.
Projects like the Secret Garden in Boscombe, which has shared skills with many growers, and the Cornerstone Patch in Hamworthy are in particular set up to support the benefits you highlight, and we are working with Grounded Community and the Parks Foundation on food growing proposals for the Kings Park nursery site.
And we are supporting the BCP Access to Food project, which aims to map and co-ordinate the efforts to help those in need of support to access Food from across the area, including growing opportunities.
Supplementary question from Councillor Patrick Canavan
Thank you Councillor Hadley for that very comprehensive reply, I was just wondering though in the context of the possibility of new town councils would it not be an opportune time to actually just take stock of what our provision is and whether or not the other opportunities that you’ve outlined could be in come way itemised so that we know what it is that we might be transferring?
Response from the Portfolio Holder for Climate Response, Environment and Energy, Councillor Andy Hadley
Thank you for your supplementary question, I think that as I highlighted the BCP Access to Food Project which is a project that we support does map all of those opportunities out across the range, creating a new formal allotment requires the ground to be of good agricultural quality and so there is a long process and effort involved to make it a formal allotment. But certainly mapping out and sharing what is out there is a project which is underway already.
Question from Councillor Chris Rigby
BCP Council have stated that attaching anything to public infrastructure, such as bridges and lamp posts, without permission is likely to be unlawful and where it causes a safety risk it will be removed as a priority. This includes flags.
Could you explain why flags attached to lampposts on Alma Road in Winton (which recorded 12 accidents between 2020–2023, according to Crash Map data) are considered less of a safety risk than those on East Way (which recorded 2 accidents in the same period), given that flags on East Way were removed after 8 days (11/09–19/09) while those on Alma Road have remained since 08/09?
Response from the Portfolio Holder for Destination, Leisure and Commercial Operations
Thankyou to Cllr Rigby for the question, and Cllr Salmon for reading it.
The removal of flags is not based on historic KSI’s, but on a multitude of factors; risk to street furniture, the impact it could have on that street furniture due to age and type of furniture, as well as welfare, wellbeing and volume of vulnerable people in proximity, as reports are received of flags officers will go and check situations, and perform a dynamic risk assessment as to whether removal is necessary, based on factors that include but are not limited to, shadows cast, impact on sightlines, where on street furniture flags are attached, what they appear to be attached with as well as location, Officers are operating within financial constraints too so have to prioritise on these factors and others that may be apparent on site.
I would encourage councillors concerned about flags to report, and if anything changes with those flags to re-report. If they slip, shift, or appear that they may be causing an issue they were not before officers will be pleased to assist within the constraints outlined.
Question from Councillor Jamie Martin
I was recently advised that there was at least £44,489.76 of CIL money that had been allocated to projects in my ward that had not been spent, and that the council was attempting to ascertain whether this money could be reallocated to the ward pot. As this money concerned projects where the council could no longer contact a project co-ordinator, it follows that unspent money is also available where a contact is known. This will no doubt be replicated across the conurbation. As such, can the portfolio holder confirm the following:
The total amount of unspent CIL money awarded during previous neighbourhood portion bidding rounds.
The mechanism whereby councillors can request these identified amounts be returned to ward pots.
The steps the council can take in monitoring the spend arising from allocations made in current and future bidding rounds, so that where appropriate the money can be returned to ward pots and benefit other projects in a timelier fashion.
Response from the Leader of the Council, Councillor Millie Earl
The work towards confirming the total amount of unspent CIL money awarded during previous neighbourhood portion bidding rounds is always ongoing and we will have clarity on this for this year as part of the annual update of the Infrastructure Funding Statement due to be published in December that demonstrates what CIL we have secured from developers and if and how it has been spent.
We have been through a process of review and reallocation across the Poole and Bournemouth wards for this round of Neighbourhood CIL, it should be spent in a timely manor. As part of Round 6, the NCIL Panel placed an emphasis on DELIVERY of projects which is leading to more positive outcomes. Project leads for Council delivered projects were also identified. This means that it is more efficient to be able to follow up on delivery. We can also advise successful bidders in Round 7 that project delivery needs to be timely, or they risk losing the funding.
Supplementary question from Councillor Jamie Martin
So given the fact that obviously for the majority of the time I have been an elected councillor I have not known about this money which has sort of been held off the books I know essentially with town councils it will be handled differently and so there is no mechanism for councillors to say, whats going on here? And get their money back into the pot? We just need a way to obviously make sure the money isn’t just out there for years.
Response from the Leader of the Council, Councillor Millie Earl
I have an example of this in my own ward where it was a huge amount, £50,000 that had just been sitting there for nearly 8 years, completely unspent and I think that is why this work is really important, and why it is working quite well as it is identifying all those pots which have been applied for in the past but haven’t actually been spent in the community which allows us then to calculate them all up and they can be available for round 7. And like I said that process has been completed and I think that the town centre pot now is something like £80,000, its huge and so I would consider getting that spent.