Agenda and draft minutes

To agree the minutes of the previous meeting.

The minutes of the Strategic Planning and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 08 September 2015 were confirmed by the members present and signed by the Chairman. 

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies received from Councillor Bateman, Matthews and C Wyatt-Lowe

Councillor Birnie substituted for Councillor Matthews and Councillor R Sutton substituted for C Wyatt-Lowe.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

An opportunity for members of the public to make statements or ask questions in accordance with the rules as to public participation.

There was no public participation.

None

None.

C Thorpe gave a presentation regarding an update on the New Waste Service. He raised the following points:

·         Before July 2013, there was an alternate collection of the bins and recycling was separated into different recycling boxes.

·         After July 2013, the service then moved to a fortnightly collection with co-mingled dry recycling, with a weekly collection for food waste.

·         The advantages of this new collection: reduction in complaints around summer smells, increased income through the Alternative Financial Model, an increased recycling rate, use of a single type of fleet and there is potential to collect extra material.

·         The new service was launched with a family introducing the new ‘family of bins’.

·         Throughout the summer, a lot of publicity was generated regarding the new service and what was expected of residents in order to make it successful including a #trashyselfie competition with summer roadshows to introduce residents to the new bins.

·         In October 2014, the service delivered 50,000 blue lidded bins, 55,000 kitchen caddies and educational packs were provided to residents.

·         To coincide with the new service launch, the council organised a vehicle billboard competition which involved local schools in the borough. The competition winners had their designs put onto the fleet vehicles and won an iPad mini and £100 for the school.

·          In the first week starting 24/11/14, 71 tonnes of food waste, 316 tonnes of mixed recycling and over 64,000 old recycling bins were collected.

·         3567 tonnes have been diverted from the green bins with the new service and residual waste has decreased.

·         Difficulties in the short term included issues regarding storage of the third bin and recycling advisors were employed to solve storage issues. Also more kitchen caddies needed to be purchased which has now been solved. The seasonal suspension of the green bin collection was contentious however this has now been amended and extended for this year. Furthermore, the policy change to only one green bin per property has affected residents with larger gardens and this is currently under review.

·         Difficulties in the long term include more bin and kitchen caddy deliveries as they did not account for those that may have been stolen. Also, trying to change habits has resulted in less tonnage collected than predicted. Furthermore, there has been a dramatic fall in the market price of recycling material.

Questions

Councillor R Sutton asked C Thorpe to clarify if the green bins will stop being collected at Christmas.

C Thorpe advised that the last green bin collection for winter will be 14^th December and this has been extended from last year. Calendars will be delivered to all residents in November to advise them of collection dates.

Councillor Hicks said that the kitchen waste caddies have been in households for 10 years and he had to apply for a new kitchen caddy because the green compost liners did not fit the old ones.

C Thorpe said there have been a handful of residents with this issue but the service did not take into account  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

Duncan Jones, the Hertfordshire Waste Partnership (HWP) Manager gave an update presentation and covered the following points:

·         The HWP was started in the early 1990’s as a communication partnership.

·         County Council is the disposal authority, with ten boroughs and districts.

·         In 2014/15, £81.5 million was spent on providing waste services. £43 million went on disposal itself with the remaining used for financing the collection of rubbish, recycling and recycling centres across the county.

·         The Joint Municipal Waste Strategy was signed in 2007 which set original targets of a 50% recycling rate by March 2013 and reduce residual waste to 185kg per head. In 2012, the Waste Partnership Agreement was signed which is a legally binding document and underlines the ways in which to work together on reducing waste in the area.

·         Performance last year fell just below the 50% target, recycling reached 49.4%.

·         Alternative Financial Model (AFM) designed to encourage authorities and providing additional rewards over and above the statuary requirements and last year was worth about £3 million. This is not split equally between boroughs, it is distributed based on performance and Dacorum received proportionately more than other boroughs with lower performing services.

·         Operational context. The vast majority of household waste disposed of has to go out of county. Only disposal point in county is Westmill in Ware, in terms of the £81.5 million spent last year, a high percentage of that is spent on transport. Cost of this long term is something that needs to be looked at.

·         Regarding organic waste – garden and food. Two facilities within county, one at South Mimms and one in Rushden, North Herts. Good example of a partnership.

·         Prior to the Dacorum service change, waste went to Cambridgeshire and that contract runs until 2018.

·         Recycling is sent across the world and a focus should be put on new recycling plants in the UK. Should then be able to repatriate the material and the economic development that comes with it.

·         Waste Aware is part of the HWP and is the public face including recycling officers from the boroughs and county. Team of 11 people come up with an annual campaign. They promote campaigns on social media, set up roadshows and work with schools.

·         In the last 12 months, there has been a continued focus on food waste. Food waste now accounts for 30% of residual waste.

·         Electrical waste as a percentage of the waste stream is increasing and provides a lot of technical issues to extract metals. The electrical waste stream represents a source of material to get at.

·         Last year, a huge focus on promoting real nappies to help save families money long term providing a subsidy for parents at £50.

·         Peer review was undertaken on HWP and the findings are as follows. Strengths:

-       Brings all county authorities together therefore creating opportunities for a combined voice and sharing expertise.

-       Enhanced recycling and waste reduction performance

-       Dedicated partnership staff

-       Allows authorities to personalise waste collection services.

·         Weaknesses of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

The Committee will be asked for suggestions on future agenda items.

Councillor Anderson proposed that if members become aware of anything they want to scrutinise, then to email the Chairman or Vice Chairman who will maintain the work programme. All members agreed.

The work program for 2015/16 was agreed.