Wednesday 28th March 2007
(ref:
90/2007)
April sees the birth of a brand new council department set up to tackle crime and grime and create a greener environment for the borough.
The Environmental Services department has been formed by merging three former council departments - planning and regeneration, engineering services and community protection.
Council chiefs say it will create one dynamic and powerful organisation covering all aspects of the council’s environmental services.
Chief executive Joyce Redfearn said:
“Local people have told us that the environment is their number one priority, but it’s true to say that our environmental services had been somewhat fragmented between the three departments.
“By creating one overarching new department we believe we can provide a really efficient and responsive service dedicated to improving the borough’s environment, while providing value for money for the council tax payer.”
In charge of the new department is director of environmental services, Martin Kimber, who was previously the council’s director of planning and regeneration.
The department will have some 1200 employees organised into five separate divisions: development, neighbourhood services, operations, performance and resource management and regeneration and protection.
The neighbourhood services division will be led by Ian Harrison, former assistant director of community protection and a police officer for over 30 years based mainly in Wigan. Its responsibilities include a whole range of ‘crime and grime ‘ services, including tackling anti-social behaviour, pest control, dog wardens, community safety, tackling litter, rubbish and fly tipping and dealing with drug and alcohol abuse.
The operations division will include the direct labour teams responsible for refuse collection, road maintenance, vehicle maintenance and council house repairs. Former highways DLO and building services boss Terry Dunn will head up the division. Terry started his Wigan Council career as an apprentice street mason paviour/flagger in 1981.
Head of the development division is Neil Fearnley. His responsibilities include planning, building control, sustainability and green issues, highways and traffic engineering, recycling, street lighting, bridges and public footpaths. Neil, a civil engineer, was formerly the deputy director of engineering services.
The regeneration and protection division takes in economic regeneration, environmental health, trading standards, public health, licensing and housing strategy. Ken Wardale, former assistant director of community protection, will be head of the division. Ken is an experienced trading standards officer, working in a number of local authorities in the region before coming to Wigan in 1999.
The performance and resource management division will handle the department’s busy call centre as well as general admin, finance and communications. Head of this division is Paul McKevitt, former assistant director in engineering services. Paul is a senior accountant and set up a service delivery team in the former engineering department to handle quality assurance, communications and consultation.
Mr Kimber said:
“We have excellent staff who are committed and enthusiastic about making our good environmental services even better. For the past year we have been putting the building blocks of the department in place and we are now ready and raring to go.
“We are firmly focused on reshaping the way we deliver our services so that we can become more responsive. We have the chance to really grapple with the government’s agenda of transferring power into communities and to take a leap forward in moving from excellent to outstanding.”
The expansion of the borough’s recycling service is a key part of the new department’s agenda. The future for waste management in the borough has just been published and it targets the doorstep collections of glass and cans within two years. It also proposes more sites for the disposal of plastic bottles.
“We want to deliver better services for residents,” says Mr Kimber. “The green bins have proven popular and successful and we’re pleased to announce this expansion as the first achievement of the new department.”
Note to editors
The new department officially comes into being on 1st April. Each service head listed above has the title ‘Head of’ (for example Head of Development)
Further information: Wigan Council’s press office, 01942 827164 or John Rowbotham, environmental services department, 01942 404369.
