Council shortlisted for LGC Environmental Services Award

The Council has been short listed in the 2023 Local Government Chronicle (LGC) awards for Environmental Services. The results will be announced on 8 June.

Councillor Karen Shore, Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways & Strategic Transport, said: “We are delighted our work has been recognised. The short listing is in recognition of the innovative changes that have been made to improve service delivery and communication across Environmental Services for our residents.

“This includes a workplace culture programme; customer experience improvements through a Digital First focus; the introduction of QR codes on litter bins and a new Garden Waste collection service.”

Working with residents, a new Wildflower and Grassland Strategy has been developed, demonstrating commitment to enhance biodiversity, abundance and connectivity of wildflower and grassland habitat, for the benefit of residents and wildlife, and in particular, pollinators. 

With help from the National Wildflower Centre at the Eden Project a suitable Cheshire seed mix was developed, and 45 native meadows created. 

A new interactive map now helps residents check when an area of grass or wildflowers will be cut. The number of contact centre enquiries for Environmental Services decreased by just over a third (34 per cent), from 21,532 in 2021 to 14,269 in 2022, with people more easily able to answer their query online. 

Cheshire West and Chester Council was one of the first councils to introduce QR codes on litter bins.  Using smartphones, residents can scan the code to find out when the bin will be emptied next, or to report it as damaged. Adding 3,006 QR codes for litter bins throughout the borough has resulted in a 51 per cent decrease in calls to the Council contact centre. 

The number of solar powered compactor bins has been increased across the borough by more than 50 per cent (from 60 to 96), contributing to the climate change reduction ambitions.  With increased capacity and data intelligence, teams can reduce trips to empty bins, which further reduces CO2 emissions.  New ‘talking bins’ also now thank residents for disposing of their waste correctly. 

The introduction of an annual charge for Garden Waste has resulted in a cost-neutral Garden Waste Service in the first year. The campaign for the new service was deemed by the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) to be ‘outstanding’ and was ranked as one of the top communications campaigns in the U.K. in 2022. 

The roll out of new kerbside bins have boosted residents recycling capacity and each year is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by 220,000kg of CO2. 

The LGC shortlisting follows news that the Council’s Environmental Services Team has also received two Certificates of Excellence from the Improvement and Efficiency Social Enterprise’ (iESE) for Green Public Services (Wildflower project) and Customer Focus (Demand Management project).