Agenda item

C Thorpe presented the report for Environmental Services and asked for any questions.

The Chairman queried the acronym DVSA.  C Thorpe confirmed it was for Driving Vehicles Standards Agency, they control Health and Safety of fleet vehicles.

Cllr Timmis mentioned the parks and tree planting and asked which trees were being planted. She also asked whether  the destruction of the woodlands path by 4x4 drivers was done by workers or clubs and whether any wildflower planting was done this year.  Cllr Timmis also asked about the verge cutting which made for a better environment and flytipping.  C Thorpe confirmed that he could send a comprehensive list of the trees being planted.  The 4x4 damage was probably done by our contractors but he will confirm that.  C Thorpe also confirmed that wildflowers were planted and verge cutting was left, but with verge cutting we need to agree with County, as they are the customer and we get complaints when we leave it due to sightlines. However, the team continues to work with M Gaynor and M Parr on the Climate Change group.  C Thorpe also confirmed that he would provide some detailed figures on flytipping as he’d just completed a FOI request which contains comprehensive information.

Action: C Thorpe

Cllr Silwal mentioned the two indicators that were red, WR01 and WR03, where the collection is 214 and target is 120 but it’s still in the red.  C Thorpe advised the figures were for the quarter, so it’s actually target 750 and we went over that and the collection total for everything we do was 1,187.  We have about 614,000 collections every month so the missed number is fairly miniscule and is down to the number of temporary staff we’ve been using, plus the number of parked vehicles on the roads where, as a result, we’re unable to get into the street and the assisted collections that have been missed.

Cllr Ransley asked what makes a missed bin collection justified.  C Thorpe said that it was where the bin had been put out and we had genuinely missed it.

Cllr Beauchamp raised concerns over the reporting structure for missed collections and asked if the system is working effectively as a resident had mentioned that it hadn’t worked for them. C Thorpe advised he was not aware of any problems and the high number of reports suggests that genuine missed collections are being captured and there isn’t a great problem,.  The problem is the amount of staff we’ve had off and we’ve had to use our spare vehicles on rounds due to social distancing, so we haven’t had the vehicles to do the missed collections.  Missed collections will reduce over time.

The Chairman queried the collection and sorting of lightbulbs and asked if there was a separate method for disposing of light bulbs.  C Thorpe confirmed that fluorescent bulbs are hazardous waste and shouldn’t go in the general waste bin, they should be taken to the household waste site.

E Walker confirmed that there was a 16% decrease in flytipping on last years figures.

M Gaynor reported that C Thorp’s team provided quite a lot of information in the Climate Change report that is included later in the agenda.

The report was noted.