RADICAL plans to transform road sweeping and grass cutting in York were unveiled by council chiefs today.

The proposals include a pilot scheme to involve residents in the way "street services" are delivered.

Road sweeping and grass cutting services are being merged, with four teams of about a dozen workers in each, covering the four geographical areas of the city.

City of York Council's Street Scene Service will be introduced across the city from Monday.

Under a new budget, extra resources have been released to improve aspects of the city's street scene. Some of these will be used to do more scheduled work, but most will be targeted where the local teams and the communities feel they will get most benefit.

Under the overhaul the council is also launching a pilot scheme called Community Street Audit where residents will be able to assess the quality of services and, if necessary, suggest changes and extra resources for a particular street or neighbourhood.

Councillor Bob Scrase, the council's executive member for commercial services, said the end of Compulsory Competitive tendering now allowed Commercial Services to concentrate on quality and flexibility of services rather than just cost.

He said: "The new approach retains the proven efficiency of the

service, but will allow us to focus better on quality, frequency of service and adapting the service to customer demands."

Council staff, in distinctive new livery and vehicles, will also benefit from the changes with more

opportunities for job rotation and training.

John Goodyear, assistant director of the council's Commercial Services Directorate, said: "Our teams will also be able to develop a relationship or a sense of ownership in the geographical area in which they are working.

"Everyone is very enthusiastic about the new system. Of course the council has only finite resources to spend on these services and we believe we can satisfy more residents with this flexible, locally-tailored approach than the previous unbending specification."

Updated: 15:12 Tuesday, March 18, 2003