South Ayrshire Council News

Following a review of a successful pilot project in Ayr Town centre, where integrated service delivery was adopted for a range of services, the concept is to be adopted across South Ayrshire Council’s Neighbourhood Services.

In April 2007 a pilot project was launched in Ayr town centre and the Council embarked on delivering services for street cleansing, grounds maintenance, public conveniences, play areas, shore cleaning, and events support services in an integrated way. The pilot project ran for six months to see if it would help the Council to meet national quality standards and public expectation and improve the quality of life within the local community.

Councillor Peter Convery, the Portfolio Carrier for Sustainability and Environment issues said: “The pilot project provided an opportunity to examine and challenge the established way in which some services were delivered. The new system takes a holistic and more co-ordinated approach where Council staff are actively encouraged to be more pro-active in delivering and improving services.

“Thanks to the hard work of staff the pilot has been a resounding success and it will now be adopted across Neighbourhood Services, which will bring benefits to everyone in South Ayrshire.”

The range of services being delivered by Neighbourhood Services staff includes:

• Street cleansing.
• Grass cutting.
• Litter control.
• Ground maintenance.
• Refuse collection.
• Graffiti removal.
• Beach cleaning.
• Public Conveniences.
• Arboriculture.

The pilot project has been successful because it:

• Integrates a range of services dealing with publicly maintained land.
• Removes service demarcation.
• Improves quality standards.
• Is based on continuous improvement.
• Maintains public satisfaction with service delivery.
• Reduces complaints.
• Instills civic and community ownership and pride.

The recent award from Beautiful Scotland of New Entrant Trophy for the Civic Pride, Troon in Bloom project, reinforces the benefits to be gained from an integrated style of service delivery and working effectively with the local community.