July - 'You said, we did' update

Our Green Inspectors project relaunched on 1 July following some changes to improve the way we action feedback.

Our internal process has been improved so that we can easily report on the feedback we’re receiving and clearly see where the issues are to take actions to improve. We’ve also improved the website and feedback form to make it more user friendly for our customer inspectors.

Inspections logged

A total of 11 customers logged green inspections during July.

The below table shows which regions these customers live in.

Feedback from the East region

Customers advised that the contractors were maintaining borders and shrubs well. Areas of concern were hedges and hard-standing areas.

In total, 57 percent of customers gave an overall rating of gold or silver for their grounds maintenance.

Feedback from the South region

All areas of grounds maintenance were scored bronze in July by the two green inspectors. Actions have been taken by the Estate Contracts Team and we hope to share improvements with you in the next monthly update.

Feedback from the West region

Customers were most satisfied with the grass and borders in the South region. Hedges, shrubs and hard-standing were all the areas highlighted for improvement.

A third (33 percent) of customers gave an overall rating of silver for their grounds maintenance.

You said, we did

Where customers have advised areas of hedges or shrubs have been missed – We’ve explained about nesting season. We believe that improving our communication about nesting season and other seasonal changes will help explain to customers why there’s sometimes a change in the service. You can find out more about nesting season here - https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/gardening-for-wildlife/plants-for-wildlife/garden-hedges/hedge-law/

Seven green inspectors advised that either an area has been missed when the contractors attended, or the customer felt the areas wasn’t completed to a good standard – The Estate Contracts Team referred all of these back to the contractor, asking them to re-attend.

A customer in the West region advised that the area wasn’t completed to a good standard - The Estate Contracts Team issued the contractors with a 48-hour notice to bring the area up to the expected standard.

We’ve been advised of areas that aren’t being maintained to a good standard – We’ve found that not all areas are Longhurst Group responsibility. We’ll issue all green inspectors with a map of their area to help show which areas our contractors should be maintaining.

Not all customers know what’s included in the grounds maintenance service - We’ve added this to The Hub page to help customers know what to expect.