The Committee was presented with a report on the Street Champions initiative and the Great British Spring Clean.

The Waste & Compliance Officer updated Members on the improvements made to volunteer litter picking activities in the Borough through the 'Street Champions' initiative, which launched in January 2020, outlined key figures from the report and also provided Members with an update on the proposed future developments to the scheme.

Members were also given an overview of the Ward Co-Ordinator role and informed that all Members were welcome to volunteer to be Ward Co-Ordinators for their respective Wards.

In response to Members questions, the Waste & Compliance Officer and the Director (Environment) & Deputy Chief Executive explained that:

• As part of the Street Champion initiative, the volunteers report to the Council on a monthly basis which gives the team data at Ward level but it would be too difficult to track street level data due to the amount of streets volunteers may clean. The first data reported to the team was being counted and would be reported in December; that data would show the team who made the report and what they reported i.e. how much rubbish did they collect. Using that data, the team would be able to see what individuals had worked really hard and options would be explored in the future as to how to reward individual. Further reports would be brought to the Committee on the work of the street champions in the future 
• The Waste & Compliance Officer advised instructions on what vegetation could be cut back, when it should be cut back and where the vegetation waste should go could be circulated to the Street Champions outside of the meeting
• The Street Champion webpage and subsequent communications with volunteers will clarify that volunteers are able to do as little or as much as volunteer activity as they wish - there are no set hours for volunteers to commit to.All of the information and data that is collected from the Street Champions would be shared with all Members as well as local rubbish pick up events around the Borough; all Members will be made aware even if it isn’t in their ward. If no Member wanted to be a Ward Co-Ordinator in a certain ward then officers would still approve equipment and share information directly with the Street Champion volunteers for that ward. It was hoped that many Members would become involved in some way and to have at least one dedicated Ward Co-Ordinator in each ward

Members raised the point that many wards had more than one Member and each had different roles; ward Members could nominate one Member from  each ward to be the Ward–Co-Ordinator.

After further discussion, the Chair advised that he would draft a letter to all Members explaining the role of the Ward Co-Ordinator and ask for nominations.  The Chair advised that he would send the letter to Cllr Meade first.

The Committee congratulated the street champions and applauded the level of work they had put into clearing rubbish off the street in their own time; the Chair asked that Communications be worked with to highlight their successes.

Members endorsed the proposal to introduce a Ward Co-Ordinator role for Members, as set out within the report.