TILBURY Councillor, Steve Liddiard presented the second in the series of adjournment debates at Thurrock Council last night.
“My proposal is to give Tilbury residents greater responsibility for cleaning and greening services.
I believe that sharing responsibility for services will improve community engagement and service delivery so that it meets the needs of the local people
My experience is that fewer than 5% of residents in Tilbury are actively engaged with the Council.
Most residents have little understanding of service levels, budgets, costs, manpower, equipment or land ownership. Without accurate information sound decisions cannot be made.
The feedback that I get is that Tilbury cleaning and greening services are quite good but there are complaints from time to time. Those complaints can take some time to fix depending on manpower, weather and other factors. The Council has complaint reporting issues in that it often takes longer than residents expect to get the work done.
I’d like Councillors to consider the points raised and agree to a one year trial, where residents can participate in the budgetary and service management of cleaning and greening operations.
This can be delivered by sharing the Council’s service management information with residents. Planned training sessions could take place with Tilbury forum, local offices, staff and volunteers.
Also, the Council should hold service and policy forums where residents could suggest alternatives and improvements.
I foresee that the outcome of this plan would be better decision making, improved satisfaction with the Council, greater pride in Tilbury and more volunteering.
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Thurrock’s employees might feel better appreciated and more accessible to local people, enabling them to react quicker to complaints.
Following your approval, we will monitor resident satisfaction and service improvements to evaluate the benefits and report back in October 2011.”
