The Panel received a presentation from Richard Burton, id Verde, setting out  challenges and successes over the last 18 months.

The Chair invited Tony Burton from the  Independent Merton Green Spaces Forum to address the Panel. He reported that the organisation was set up in 2016 in response to outsourcing of the contract, they offer a community perspective and wanted to raise three main issues:

·         Basic horticultural skills are lacking, shards of glass caused by mowers are not cleared. A high staff turnover leads to lack of basic knowledge of the parks. Idverde are slow in responding to concerns and complaints by local groups

·         Merton council are asked to enforce the contract with idverde more vigourously.

·         Idverde are asked to take responsibility for the shortcomings within the service and make improvements.

The Leisure and Culture Greenspaces Manager gave an overview of the report which is focused on the performance of the contract. The main areas of underperformance have been grass cutting and litter clearance. Id Verde  also need to consider how it deploys staff seasonally.

A panel member asked if there are enough staff to monitor both contracts given the demand on staff generated by the Waste service change. Id Verde reported additional staff have and are been employed to support the roll out of the Veolia contract.

A panel member asked where to direct their enquiries it was reported there is a dedicated enquiry line which will be shared with councillors. ACTION: Leisure and Culture Greenspaces Manager

In response to questions from the Panel it was reported that:

There had been health and safety concerns related to the quality of children’s playground inspections. Furthermore a training exercise was carried out in relation to water safety testing as the council needed to be satisfied that all Id Verde staff were competent.

Fees and charges are a council decision,  with advice taken from id Verde

RESOLVED

The Chair thanked officers for their report.