Green machines

Nine new dual fuel electric/petrol hybrid cars boost patrollers' eco-credentials

The borough's patrollers have turned to new green machines to help tackle anti-social behaviour in a more environmentally friendly way.

For they have just taken delivery of nine eco hybrid cars to replace their fleet of petrol driven Ford Focuses.

Called the Toyota Prius, the cars (pictured with the patrollers and Cllrs Roy Oldham and Alan Whitehead) are powered by electricity up to 28mph at which time they switch over to unleaded petrol.

The batteries that operate the cars are then re-charged as the engine switches over. This means that unlike conventional electric-powered vehicles these don't have to be plugged into a power supply.

It has been estimated that the patrol cars will save around 21 tons of carbon emissions per year as well as saving in the region of around 5,500 litres of fuel during the same period.

Because the cars are so green - something the government is keen to promote - the road tax level is lower than normal cars their size. If proven successful for the patrollers they will be rolled out to other services across the council. Highways inspectors could be next in line.

Executive Council Leader, Cllr Roy Oldham, who oversaw the finances to buy the brand new vehicles, said: "I think this is an excellent idea that could well be extended to other areas of the council.

"These vehicles will not only help this authority's green credentials even further, they will provide our patrollers with brand new state-of-the art vehicles to carry out their work."

Executive member for technical services, who manage the vehicles, Cllr Alan Whitehead added: "These cars are a superb addition to our vehicle fleet. They are easy to operate and obviously excellent for reducing carbon emissions as well as extremely quiet, which is bad news for anyone committing anti-social behaviour because they won't hear the patrol cars approaching."

Council gets the thumbs up

Over 1,000 local people have recently given their views of the council in a large national survey.

People across the country are asked every three years by an independent company to rate their local council and the different services it provides. In Tameside, Ipsos Mori ran the survey this time.

You put Tameside at the top across Greater Manchester for:

• Local tips (87 per cent of you are satisfied)
• Libraries (79 per cent of you are satisfied)
• Recycling facilities (76 per cent of you are satisfied)

Tameside people say they are happy with their council when they are offered good value for money and it is well run. Tameside was also top across Greater Manchester for residents feeling that their council is efficient and well run.

71 per cent of residents in Tameside also feel that the council treats all local people fairly and 80 per cent think the council is making Tameside cleaner and greener.

People in Tameside say that the most important things in making somewhere a good place to live are low levels of crime and clean streets.

The survey will be repeated again in 2009, but the council regularly asks local people what they think about life in the borough and local services. If anyone would like to know more about consultation at the council, visit the consultation pages on the council website or telephone the Policy Unit on 0161 342 3529.

New parking powers for Council

The way car parking regulations are enforced across the borough has been changed. The responsibility for parking enforcement now lies with the local authority instead of the police. This is known as the decriminalisation of parking, as enforcement will be dealt with as a civil rather than criminal matter.

Tameside has trained ten new patrollers to carry out the work which was previously done by the police. The patrollers will enforce all parking on yellow lines, loading bays, overstaying time periods in limited areas and not parking within designated parking bays in the borough.

The powers were passed over to local authorities so they can tackle increased traffic congestion and dangerous parking which causes problems for all road users. It will allow the council to improve road and pedestrian safety and improve access for public transport and cyclists.

The new team will wear a distinctive uniform and use hand held devices to carry out their work. They will patrol strategic routes, areas around schools, town centres and other ‘hot spots'.

The income from the payment of penalty charge notices will be used by the council to help fund other traffic initiatives, improve parking enforcement and support community projects where possible.

Head of engineering Mike Thompson said: "Our aim is to reduce problems in particular areas where illegal parking creates congestion, obstruction and highway safety problems. The new enforcement regime will assist to keep traffic moving safely across the borough which will help everyone who lives or works in Tameside."

Leaflets and posters have been distributed at libraries, call centres and information points across the borough to draw attention to the new regulations.

Shortlisted

As the Citizen went to press Tameside Council was due to learn whether it had won a prestigious Municipal Journal (MJ) Award, in the top category of Best Achieving Council.

The MJ magazine launched the Local Government Achievement Awards in 2004 to recognise and promote the good work being undertaken by local authorities.

Making this shortlist follows Tameside recently being rated as the best performing council in the North West and becoming the first metropolitan borough in the country to achieve a Charter Mark - the Government's standard for customer service.

According to Audit Commission inspectors, Tameside is delivering significant improvements to services for local people. The council delivers value for money, scores highly for efficiency and still has one of the lowest Council Tax rises in the country at 2.96%.

The Charter Mark assessor described Tameside Council as setting the standard for all local authorities, praising its strong leadership and vision for residents.

National recognition of Tameside's success can be attributed to many areas of work across the council including:

• Improvements in educational attainment
• Road traffic accidents have continued to fall.
• Rising resident satisfaction reflecting improvements in street cleanliness
• Innovative and ground breaking approaches to recycling and street cleanliness.

Tameside Council Chief Executive Janet Callender said: "As a council we pride ourselves on understanding and responding to the needs of the community and in identifying and tackling areas where we can improve.

"We are delighted to be shortlisted for this Municipal Journal Award as it really recognises the hard work, commitment and efforts of our staff. We are pleased that we are receiving recognition in Tameside for trying to provide the best services possible to our residents - and that will always be at the heart of what we do."

Further to this article, Tameside Council has been officially named the best in the country.