Agenda item

D Austin introduced the report to members and ran through the highlights.
The waste service has been busy, with garden collections restarting for the summer months and also having to work around the industrial action. He highlighted an error in the report which should be corrected to highlight that a member of staff had achieved with seven years services without any sick days.
The environmental awareness team have done some good work with the Great British Spring Clean and have lead on a project with the Hertfordshire Waste Partnership which have carried out a high profile fly tipping campaign.
In Clean, Safe and Green, their hard work in the Water Gardens as lead to a nomination for being awarded a Green Flag.
The performance indicators in the report are good, there is one red indicator under garden waste but this is because the denominator needs to be profiled.
An update on flats recycling – a food waste trial will begin in July to collect food waste from 1,600 properties in three parts of the borough: Berkhamsted, Grovehill and Leverstock Green. The comingled recycling will start in September on a phased basis. There are 663 blocks of flats in the borough that have no access to recycling.

Councillor Bateman asked if the member of staff with seven years’ service had been recognised in any way. Recognition might give other staff something to aspire too.
D Austin said he received a certificate from the Chief Executive.

Councillor Timmis congratulated officers on some of their work. She was concerned about fly tipping which she believed had increased in her ward. One resident drove down one of the lanes and counted 25 instances of fly tipping. She had attended the Herts Show and approached Herts County Council who had a stand and asked about enforcement of fly tipping. It is extremely difficult to prove who has committed the offence; CCTV cameras are not suitable in a rural location. It is becoming a huge problem and there needs to be a solution to make a difference.
Councillor Timmis expressed her concerned about sickness levels which she thought looked quite high. Finally, she asked about grass cutting and whether the team could cut around the edges to highlight the site lines but leave the wild flowers to grow.
D Austin said he would be happy to work with Councillor Timmis and E Walker to come up with some solutions about how to try and solve fly tipping. There has been a publicity leaflet delivered to all homes in the borough with the Council Tax bill so people are aware of their responsibility. He said he would be happy to arrange a site visit with Councillor Timmis to go and have a look at the problem.
In relation to sickness, it was high in January but overall there are not any major trends appearing. Considering these are front line staff, the sickness levels are the best the department has seen in 12-18 months.
S Coultas said that the council does not maintain the areas that Councillor Timmis was referring to. This are maintained by a Herts County Council contractor. When grass cutting takes place, staff take great care to avoid cutting wildflowers.

Councillor Birnie asked why Berkhamsted, Grovehill and Leverstock Green were chosen as pilots for food waste recycling.
D Austin said he had not been directly involved with the project but said the pilot would be looking at issues such as participation rates and contamination issues over the socio-economic groups.
Councillor Marshall said they were chosen to explore the different lifestyles of different groups. Also, there are flats in every ward chosen.
Councillor Birnie said the socio-economic grouping seems skewed and some wards that are marginal should be included.
Councillor G Sutton said that Leverstock Green is a ward where there are households in the upper quartile and others in the lower quartile of the socio-economic scale.

Councillor G Sutton thanked S Coultas and his team for their excellent planting work around the borough.
Councillor Ridick congratulated the team on their work in the Water Gardens. He said he had recently walked through and had heard three members of the public commenting on how nice it now looked.
Councillor S Hearn also congratulated the team on their work in the Memorial Garden in Tring which he said was now attracting more and more visitors and was a focal point of the town.
S Coultas thanked members for their comments and said he would pass them on to the team.

Outcome

That the Strategic Planning and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee approve the report.