Issue - meetings

C Thorpe introduced the report and advised the Committee that quarter 2 had been slow which may be the calm before the storm at Christmas time. C Thorpe went through the key service achievements in quarter 2. Waste services carried out an induction was provided to St Albans staff who are temporarily tipping their food waste at Cupid Green and they hosted the Mayor’s visit to Cupid Green where worked with teams emptying bins and picking litter for the day. With regards to Environmental Services Projects, the Clean, Safe and Green Community Champion award was awarded to Friends of Chipperfield Common and the individual award was presented to John Savage from Tring. There were also highly commended runners up: Berkhamsted based litter picker Colin Garrett and Boho Boxmoor. The Clean, Safe and Green department have set up a new team with new equipment dedicated to cleaning the new Town Centre removing graffiti and fly posting. The Green Flags awards saw Dacorum retain its three existing flags and were awarded one new flag for Bunkers Park. C Thorpe also advised the committee on personnel changes and they have recruited new drivers which reduces the use of agency workers. Also, the new FirstCare system is working well after a few teething problems but sickness rates are still high. Return to work compliance is being monitored however it is difficult to complete these assessments in the recommended 8 days as many staff members are not office based. Furthermore, co-mingled waste recycling decreased from quarter 1 as did garden waste but that is to be expected at this time of the year. All targets have been achieved on the performance report but the recycling rate target was 60% but for this quarter it reached 53.6% and this is slightly down on quarter 1 where the recycling rate hit 56%.

Councillor C Wyatt-Lowe thanked C Thorpe for the useful report highlighting the work that the service carries out. Councillor C Wyatt-Lowe questioned whether the new Town Centre cleaning team would also be focussing on the Old Town as the town now has two new, beautiful zones to up keep.

C Thorpe said that the new cleaning team has been brought in for both the New and Old Town, it just happens to be that the launch of the new team coincided with the completion of the New Town.

Councillor Matthews referred to page 9 in the agenda and asked why there were no figures provided for general waste collection.

C Thorpe said that he has never reported these figures to the committee but that information is supplied by Hertfordshire County Council so it is possible to report on residual waste figures in the future if members would find that useful.

Councillor Matthews stated that in his street, he was aware of residents putting out their food bins religiously every week at the beginning of the scheme. However, he said he had noticed a drop in the number of food bins being put out. Is the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41