Page last updated at 16:45 GMT, Tuesday, December 6 2011

Eastleigh is the ‘Best Council in the country’

Eastleigh has been recognised as the best Council in the country for street cleansing, at the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) national awards.

The Council scooped the award in the Street Cleansing Best Performer category on the basis of data that it submits annually to APSE.  This data includes details of the cost of the service, the level of training and development, the results of customer surveys, staff sickness levels, work planning, deployment of resources, how waste is disposed of and how much is recycled together with the results of our NI195 inspections - a national indicator for street inspections. All this information is then compared with other authorities across the UK and scored and Eastleigh came out as the best performer.
 
The Council’s percentage figures for the amount of litter/detritus present when the streets were inspected is shown in the table below and clearly shows the improvements made by the Streetscene service since the service was reviewed in Spring 2009:

Cabinet Lead for Transport and Streetscene Cllr David Airey said “Being recognised as the top Council in the country for street cleansing is fantastic news. It recognises all the hard work by our staff and it’s really great news for our residents as they receive such an excellent service. The Council has made a significant improvement in its street cleansing over the last few years and we have reached a standard we now need to maintain”.

The Council was presented with its award at the prestigious national award ceremony on Thursday 1 December in Blackpool.

Head of Direct Services Gail Grant (right) and Streetscene Manager Paul Naylor receive the award from Coronation Street actress Samia Ghadie