Agenda item

To consider the 12 month update following the transfer of the Council’s waste services to Ubico in April 2015.

95.1           Attention was drawn to the report of the Environmental Contracts Team Leader from the Joint Waste Team, circulated at Pages No. 29-37, which provided an update on key indicators and trends for the waste and recycling service following the transfer of recycling, refuse, street cleansing, grounds maintenance and ancillary services to Ubico on 1 April 2015.  Members were asked to consider the information provided.

95.2           The Chair welcomed the Environmental Contracts Team Leader from the Joint Waste Team, Rachel Capon, to the meeting.  She advised that the update would cover the period July 2015 to December 2015 and explained that an annual report was currently being prepared by Ubico and would be available after the next partnership meeting at the end of May.  Members were advised that the last 12 months had been about ensuring that the services were operating efficiently and effectively following transfer to Ubico.  From a customer perspective, the Achieve system had been put in place so the Customer Services team was able to log all service requests, which were then dealt with by Ubico staff, and this was part of the performance monitoring.  The Joint Waste Team carried out monthly contract meetings with Ubico on behalf of the Council to monitor performance indicators, service delivery issues, customer service delivery issues etc.  It also carried out health and safety monitoring of Ubico crews on a monthly basis to ensure that they followed the correct procedures.  Any issues identified were fed back to the Ubico supervisors and actions recorded to ensure a closed-loop process was in place.  Health and safety information was reported quarterly to the Council’s ‘Keep Safe, Stay Healthy’ group.  In terms of the ground maintenance element, this was monitored by the Tewkesbury Borough Council Licensing Team Leader within the Environmental Health service.  The Environmental Services Partnership Board met on a quarterly basis and there had been three meetings to date.

95.3           With regard to performance indicators, health and safety was critical and attention was drawn to the table at Page No. 31, Paragraph 4.1.1 of the report, which set out the statistics for quarters 2 and 3.  There had been two reportable accidents under the Reporting of Incidents, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) in quarter 2, both involving relatively minor and unrelated slips; one loader had tripped over and fractured his wrist, another had sprained his ankle on uneven ground.  There had been one reported “near miss” which related to a car which had mounted the pavement.  There had been no work-related incidents in quarter 3 but there had been two “near misses” which had involved intimidation by another vehicle.  Although very few near misses were reported, it was good practice to do so in order to prevent future accidents.  Work was being done with Ubico to put a system in place to encourage crews to report more so it was likely that there would be an increase in near misses over the next quarter.  Members were advised that 20 crew inspections were carried out per month and Ubico regularly communicated with crews on health and safety matters with recent topics including cab access and egress; hand hygiene; risk from used needles in bags; and manual handling.

95.4           The Ubico contract set a 99% target for household collections completed on schedule and this had been achieved each month.  The type of issues that could impact upon this included adverse weather, vehicle breakdowns and shortage of crews due to sickness.  In terms of service requests, there had been 801 missed bin collections during quarter 1 compared to 559 and 564 for quarters 2 and 3 respectively.  The high number of missed collections in quarter 1 could be attributed to the Achieve system and the way the collections were monitored which had led to some missed collections being reported more than once.  Members were reminded that missed collections need to be considered in context of the 36,000 collections that were made each week.  There had been a general growth in residual waste per household which tended to happen when there was an improvement in the economic situation of a country.  Notwithstanding this, it was anticipated that the figures would be only slightly higher for 2015/16 than for the previous year which was quite positive.  It was noted that one particular issue was with diabetic needles being found amongst recyclate and work was being done to prevent this.  The table at Page No. 35, Paragraph 4.5 of the Officer report, set out the percentage of household waste re-used, recycled and composted and the figures up to the end of February 2016 showed that a rate of 51% would be achieved, which was in line with the previous year.

95.5           In terms of human resources, the average number of days lost per full time equivalent within business support had reduced from 2.63 days in quarter 1 to 0.46 days in quarter 2 which was largely due to targeted intervention and firmer management by Ubico.  The budget monitoring report to 31 December 2015 showed that a net underspend of £40,000 was forecast at year end; this was due to planned savings and a reduction in maintenance work to vehicles and plant pending their replacement.  It was noted that Ubico had supported 28 community events from April to December 2015 and had carried out stickering of refuse bins for the Joint Waste Team as part of the food waste campaign as well as playing an integral part in the service review project and the vehicle procurement project in readiness for the expiry of the current contract in April 2017.  Members were advised that there had generally been a seamless transition of the Council’s waste services to Ubico and, although there were always challenges and things which could go amiss, it was intended to continue to improve.  Going forward, Members were asked to consider how often they wished to receive a report on the performance of Ubico and whether this should be combined with the report on the Joint Waste Action Plan progress or kept separate.

95.6           A Member raised concern that grounds maintenance and street cleansing were totally missing from the report.  The Deputy Chief Executive clarified that this report was specifically about the waste service, although she recognised the need for more information on grounds maintenance and street cleansing.  A number of big decisions had been made over the past year and generally it had been a very successful transition.  A lot of work had been undertaken with the Customer Services team and the Achieve system had helped staff considerably.  Ubico was working hard to ensure that recycling rates were maintained, despite a national reduction, and there had been a 24% increase on the tonnage of food waste collected as a result of the food waste campaign.  The Member questioned whether the human resources figures included grounds maintenance staff and was advised that all the human resources and financial figures included all elements of the service.  The Environmental Contracts Team Leader accepted that more work needed to be done on grounds maintenance and how this was reported which would tie in with the new complaints procedure.

95.7           A Member noted that fly-tipping figures had reduced during quarter 3, however, this had certainly not been the case in his area and he raised concern that he was not being kept informed as to what was being done to address this.  He also indicated that there was a “hardcore” of people who did not recycle any waste at all.  Members were advised that addressing the “hardcore” was included in the Joint Waste Team Action Plan.  These were often people who were hard to reach, or people who felt that they did not need to recycle, and Ubico intended to help the team to deliver projects arising from the action plan.  The Environmental Health Manager advised that there had been a few concerns about specific fly-tipping cases and one of the key messages arising from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s Enviro-Crimes Review, which had been conducted 18 months earlier, was the need to increase enforcement.  There was a very good way of working now that the Achieve system was in place and Environmental Health was able to get involved if evidence came back which supported action being taken.

95.8           A Member drew attention to the table at Page No. 33, Paragraph 4.3.1 of the report, which showed the service requests received during quarter 3.  He felt that they were all very specific with the exception of ‘grounds maintenance reports’ and indicated that he would like to see a breakdown of the particular issues within grounds maintenance.  In terms of the percentage of household waste being recycled, he hoped to see the figures built up over the next 12 months in order to allow proper comparisons and trend analysis.  With regard to missed bin collections, a Member questioned how many had been due to parked cars and inaccessible houses.  In response, Members were advised that the reported missed collections were genuine missed collections; sometimes collections were missed due to people not having put their bins out and those incidents were not included in the figures.  If the crew could not access a property to collect the bin this was reported to Customer Services who would log this but it was not classed as a missed collection.  A Member questioned if the targets which had been set for Ubico could be reviewed; he drew particular attention to the 99% target for household collections completed which allowed for 450 missed collections per week which was ten times the amount of collections currently being missed per week.  Members were informed that all targets were reviewable and this point was very relevant.  With regard to the reports of dog/litter bins overflowing, which had increased from 0 to 16 between quarter 1 and quarter 3, a Member questioned whether there had been a change in policy which meant that they were being emptied less frequently.  In response, the Environmental Contracts Team Leader from the Joint Waste Team advised that, when the system had first been set up dog/litter bins could not be requested as a specific area for reporting so it had not been possible to provide statistics for quarter 1.  Despite the increase in reports, she did not believe that this was becoming a bigger issue.

95.9           A Member queried whether there was a target in place for residual household waste per household and the Environmental Contracts Team Leader confirmed that there was no specific target for this element.  The Joint Waste Strategy which the Gloucestershire local authorities were signed up to included a target of 60% by 2020, however, there would need to be a drastic change across the county for that to be achieved. 

95.10         A Member questioned how the contamination of recyclate with needles could be attributed to Tewkesbury Borough Council waste.  She was advised that the recyclate was taken to the Grundon Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) at Bishop’s Cleeve which only accepted waste from Tewkesbury Borough Council; whilst it did accept commercial waste, this was separate and did not include glass.  Work was currently ongoing to attempt to identify the rounds where this was a particular problem.  Members were informed that diabetic needles were packed in plastic containers so there seemed to be a perception among the public that they could be recycled; work was being done with Turning Point on how best to educate people around this issue.

95.11         A Member suggested that it might be beneficial to re-establish the Enviro-Crimes Working Group as they appeared to be on the increase.  The Deputy Chief Executive provided assurance that this was not the case and work was ongoing to deliver the approved action plan.  The Environmental Services Manager undertook to bring a report back to the Committee to update Members on the current situation regarding enviro-crimes, particularly in respect of fly-tipping, and it was agreed that a separate report should be provided in respect of grounds maintenance.  In terms of the frequency of the reporting from Ubico, Members felt that the report should not be combined with the Joint Waste report and that it should be considered on an annual basis in line with the annual report which Ubico was required to produce in accordance with its contract with the Council.

95.12         Having considered the information provided and views expressed, it was

RESOLVED          1.   That the 12 month update following the transfer of the Council’s waste services to Ubico be NOTED and that reports continue to be taken to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on an annual basis in line with the Ubico annual report required as part of its contract with the Council.

2.   That separate reports be brought to a future meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in respect of:

i) enviro-crimes, with particular focus on fly-tipping; and

ii) grounds maintenance.