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Public performance reports

Street cleaning and grounds maintenance

The Council Plan Connect, outlines our objectives for 2022-27. Connect Priorities 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 Priorities. 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 objective to work with communities and partners to promote high quality, thriving and sustainable communities.

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 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 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 Are we improving?
SLC 94.8% 94.1% 92.1% No
Scotland 92.3% 90.1% 89.7%
How we have performed in improving this public service

South Lanarkshire Council continues to score higher for its street cleansing service than the Scottish average, with 92.1% of streets surveyed found to be of an acceptable standard, although this is down slightly from 94.1% in 2020-21. Our Street Cleansing service were finalists in the 2022 APSE UK Services Awards in the category of "Best Service Team of the Year for Streets Cleansing and Streetscene service".

Satisfaction with street cleaning: Satisfaction data from the Scottish Household survey is not yet available for 2021-22.

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 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22 Are we improving?
SLC 72 72 71.3 No
Scotland N/A N/A N/A
How we have performed in improving this public service

LAMS measures the quality of grounds maintenance based on surveys which are completed throughout the year. Taking all of the year's scores into consideration (72, 72, 74 and 67), the overall LAMS score for 2021-22 was 71.3, which is slightly below the target of 72.0.

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

Satisfaction with local parks and open spaces: Satisfaction data from the Scottish Household survey is not yet available for 2021-22.

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 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 (February 2023).