Agenda item

Report of the Director of Public Relations.

The Director of Public Relations introduced his written update on Port Health and Environmental Services public relations. He noted that the current update was the third annual report to come before the committee, and that he would welcome any comments and critique on members on its presentation and structure.

He proceeded to highlight some sections of the report:

Media Coverage

He noted that copies of the main media cuttings relevant to the committee were available for members to consider.

Website

He commented that the City of London Corporation website had been updated in the past year to make its structure more user friendly.

Polling - Public Conveniences

He noted that the only City of London service to receive a negative satisfaction rating was public conveniences and the community toilet scheme, and that this had been the subject of a summary report to the Policy & Resources Committee. He informed members that a presentation would take place on the topic at a date in mid-December. He pointed out that there was no historic data with which to compare the current results and therefore it was difficult to establish the reason for the low rates of satisfaction. Nevertheless he noted that more work would be done on raising awareness of the community toilet scheme for the time being.

The Chairman thanked the Director for his update to the committee, and said that the overall high rate of satisfaction with the City of London Corporation was a tribute to the hard work of officers and members of the committee.

In response to a question from a member over the disparity in satisfaction between residents and businesses regarding recycling (78% versus 35%), the Transportation and Public Realm Director replied that this was likely due to residential collection being carried out by the City of London Corporation whereas business collection was carried out by independent commercial operators that were driving down prices via competition.

In response to a question from a member over whether the split between recycled and unrecycled waste could be monitored, the Transportation and Public Realm Director replied that two approaches were possible, namely by monitoring the waybridge at Walbrook Wharf in the first instance and personal visits by Recycling Officers in the second. There were issues with both approaches, in that the waste on the waybrigde represented only a percentage of the total waste from across the City, and the fact that the Recycling Team was currently only composed of four officers. He further remarked that corporate social responsibility was acting as a driver for businesses to proactively increase the amount of recyclable material they produced.

The Assistant Director of Public Relations (Press) took the opportunity to inform the committee that two of the City of London’s best performing media stories from the past 12 months had arisen from areas within its remit, namely grave reuse and air quality.

The Assistant Director of Streetscene and Strategy noted that a report on public conveniences had not been submitted to the committee due to their poor performance during polling, which had prompted officers to first investigate the reasons for the poor performance. He suggested that a working group of members be created in order to consider the issues involved and make recommendations for improvement.

A member added that a lack of provision in the Bishopsgate area had been an election issue, and that it was necessary to accept that the Night Time Economy had created demand for public conveniences. Furthermore she felt that it was important not to let the issue drift.  She added that she felt the community toilet scheme was not a viable solution.

The Chairman agreed that the matter included the issue of appropriate provision but that consideration needed to be given to what was achievable given the resources available. He noted that, in order to gain momentum, ‘quick wins’ had to be identified and furthermore that a reliable evidence base had to be built up.

A member observed that the public conveniences at Bank were of a very high standard and that in possible these should be used as a model of best practice. He noted also that the City of London had the opportunity to enhance its reputation by providing high-standard, sensibly located and free public conveniences.

The Chairman therefore invited interested members to put their names forward to form a Public Conveniences Working Group. Wendy Hyde, Andrew McMurtrie, Jeremy Simons and Barbara Newman volunteered to be members.

In response to a question from a member over whether any action had been taken against public urination in Smithfield, the Assistant Director of Streetscene and Strategy replied that 22 street notices had been issued between July and November 2013.

In response to a question from a member over what advance notice had been given for the closure of Bank public conveniences, the Assistant Director of Streetscene and Strategy replied that the works involved were being carried out by London Underground Limited (LUL) and that he was not aware of any advance notice being given.

A member observed that low public satisfaction with City of London public conveniences was potentially due to pay-per-use.