Agenda item

To consider the progress made to date in relation to the 2016/17 Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee Action Plan and to consider the 2017/18 outline business plan.

47.1           The report of the Interim Head of Community Services, circulated at Pages No. 26-40, provided an update on the progress against the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee Action Plan for 2016/17 and detailed the outline Business Plan for 2017-20.  Members were asked to consider the report.

47.2           The Contracts Manager for the Joint Waste Team advised that Tewkesbury Borough Council was represented on the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee by Councillors Jim Mason and Mark Williams and the Interim Head of Community Services was a representative on the Senior Management Group.  The Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee Action Plan 2016/17 was set out in the table at Appendix 1 to the report and it was noted that there were three priority areas: broadening the partnership – Gloucester City and Stroud District Councils were not currently part of the Joint Waste Committee; integration e.g. avoiding duplication of effort and resources; and diversion i.e. reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill through waste avoidance.  It was recognised that the information in the table was not terribly clear and Members were advised that a RAG (Red, Amber, Green) traffic light rating system would be applied in future.

47.3           The Environment and Waste Policy Officer for the Joint Waste Team drew attention to Paragraph 3.1 of the report which set out the key achievements for Tewkesbury Borough to date.  Members were informed that a developers guide had been produced setting out requirements for refuse recycling provision at new developments and this had been published on the Council’s website.  In addition, considerable progress had been made to address needle contamination which, although confined to a small number of properties, had been causing a significant problem.  This had involved a lot of work across a number of organisations but she was pleased to report that there had only been one incident in quarter 2 compared with several per month previously.  It was noted that a service level agreement between the Council and the European Recycling Company, a textile recycling contractor, had now been signed and more recycling banks were being rolled out across the County.  There was currently a good market price for textiles and income would also be received from the Salvation Army where it had recycling banks on Tewkesbury Borough Council land; promotional work would be undertaken once these arrangements had been finalised.  The Council’s service review, which had been a significant project over the last 18 months, had been approved by the Council in February 2016 and a procurement exercise was underway in respect of the new vehicle fleet; a vehicle provider was ready to be appointed and tenders for the vehicles were due to be submitted the following day.  The Environment and Waste Policy Officer for the Joint Waste Team explained that the Council currently sent its recycling to the Grundon Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Bishop’s Cleeve, however, that contract was due to expire in April.  The new contract was currently out to tender and there had been a number of expressions of interest; it was anticipated that the new contractor would be appointed in January 2017.  Members were advised that the increase in the number of homes in the Borough had put pressure on the current collection rounds and the new refuse and recycling fleet would require different route mapping as the types of vehicles would change.  As such it was anticipated that there would be different collection days for approximately 50% of properties within the Borough from April 2017.  New waste and recycling collection calendars would be issued to all properties at the beginning of November outlining their collection days, an article was also being included in the Borough News and residents would receive a follow-up letter in February/March 2017.  It was worth noting that, due to the changes in the vehicle fleet, food waste would be collected separately from bins (green or blue) and so what may appear to be a missed bin or caddy could just be a delay between the different collections.  A Member suggested that a sticker system might be helpful to inform people of changes to their collection days, however, the Environment and Waste Policy Officer for the Joint Waste Team explained that, when the new rounds were introduced in April, it was possible that the bin crew carrying out the stickering would not be the same crew who collected the bins which increased the margin for error.  On that basis, it was considered that it would be cheaper in the long run to post out the collection information initially and to look at other options in future.

47.4           The Contracts Manager for the Joint Waste Team went on to advise that another project which had been ongoing for the past year related to the Forest of Dean’s collection service. The new service had added cardboard, plastic bottles, textiles and small electricals to the items collected from the kerbside and had changed the frequency of collections from fortnightly to weekly which had seen recycling increase by 50% in its second month.  Members were informed that this would be publicised once the three month performance figures had been collated.  The Household Recycling Centre contract with Kier had ended in July and Ubico had taken over the contract in August with the Joint Waste Team responsible for the management and sales of materials collected at the site.  It was pleasing to note that the transition had been relatively seamless despite the short notice.  Members were advised that Cotswold District Council had undergone an optimisation exercise which had resulted in changes to collection days for 70% of households.  This had increased resilience and addressed the demands on the service arising from property growth.  Cheltenham Borough Council was also going through a service options review and consideration was being given to a co-mingled service similar to Tewkesbury Borough Council’s but with separate glass collection and an option for three weekly refuse collection.  Whilst Stroud District Council was not part of the Joint Waste Team, it was linked with the Joint Waste Strategy, which all of the Gloucestershire Districts were signed up to, and was moving towards weekly food waste collections and fortnightly waste collections in a 140 litre wheeled bin; this was a comparatively small bin so it would be interesting to monitor the impact of the changes.

47.5           Attention was drawn to Paragraph 4.1 of the report which detailed the key communication activities being undertaken or supported by the Joint Waste Team during 2016/17.  Members were informed that “The Unusual Suspects” was the theme of the national Recycle Week campaign, aimed at raising awareness of recycling including items from areas of the home which were often overlooked, e.g. aerosols and shampoo bottles in the bathroom.  The “Right Waste Right Place” campaign was currently underway and aimed to reduce fly-tipping and trade waste abuse at Household Recycling Centres; one of the key messages was ensuring that people were aware who they were giving their waste to and that they had the appropriate licence to carry the waste.  Traders were being provided with information about their duty of care and their options for recycling and disposal of waste.  A Member questioned how successful the campaign had been and whether any prosecutions had been made as a result.  Members were advised that enforcement was different for each authority within the Joint Waste Team; in Tewkesbury Borough, responsibility had remained with the Council’s Environmental Health Manager whereas the Joint Waste Team had responsibility for enforcement within the Forest of Dean.  It was noted that, although there had been quite a few prosecutions in the Forest of Dean as a result of a recent project, generally there were around 80 fly-tips per month which resulted in approximately four prosecutions.  Unfortunately it was very difficult to collect the evidence which was required to carry out prosecutions.  The Council’s Environmental Health Manager advised that the “Right Waste Right Place” campaign had focused on ensuring that waste was only given to licensed carriers and there had been no prosecutions in relation to that specific issue.  The Contracts Manager for the Joint Waste Team explained that an advertisement had been used in the Forest of Dean to raise awareness and a successful stop and search exercise had also been carried out; she would be happy to share the results and feedback with the Council’s Environmental Health Manager.  In response to a query regarding the number of applications for trade waste carrier licences, Members were advised that this was an Environment Agency function as opposed to a Tewkesbury Borough Council one.  Whilst the Council was responsible for issuing licences to scrap metal dealers, their numbers were very low in comparison to trade waste carriers and the Environmental Health Manager undertook to provide an update on the figures in respect of both licences following the meeting.

47.6           Members were informed that the outline Business Plan for 2017-20 had been presented to the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee at the Board meeting on 4 October 2016 and a copy was attached at Appendix 2 to the report.  Going forward there would be a route mapping meeting in November and the draft Business Plan 2017-20 would then be considered by the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee at its meeting in December with sign-off in February 2017.  It was noted that there were some items specifically related to Tewkesbury Borough and these were set out at Pages No. 38-39 of the outline plan.  One action was to review and establish how cross-boundary developments would be served to see if there was a solution which fitted all three of the Joint Core Strategy authorities; another action was to undertake a review of the trade waste service to ensure it was operating on a viable commercial level; and a third action was to review the garden waste charging process to consider annual renewal and a licence/tag system.  A Member noted that the outline Business Plan spanned a three year period and he felt that it would be beneficial for dates to be included so Members could see when actions were being delivered.  The Contracts Manager for the Joint Waste Team advised that, whilst the Business Plan itself covered a period of three years, an action plan would be produced for each year and would be brought to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for consideration on an annual basis.  She reiterated that the next action plan would incorporate a RAG system.  Whilst he welcomed the level of detail included in the report, the Member felt that, once the RAG system was in place, it would be beneficial if Officers could focus on the actions which were really important to Tewkesbury Borough Council.  The Chief Executive agreed that the background information was useful, and should be included within the report, but it did not need to be presented extensively at the meeting.  Another Member noted that the 2016/17 Action Plan included several actions with no comments and he was advised that this was because work had not yet started, however, it was accepted that this should have been stated within the report.  A Member drew attention to Action 5.1 – Actively seek out and continue to draw on good practice and trial schemes promoted by WRAP and other local authorities, and the projected outcome which was ‘to report to the Committee on such ideas, with external speakers as appropriate’ and she questioned whether those speakers were received on an ad hoc basis as opposed to being scheduled in.  The Contracts Manager for the Joint Waste Team advised that the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee met four times a year and had welcomed speakers on various issues, as such, she undertook to ensure that the Action Plan was updated accordingly.

47.7           A Member indicated that he had noticed that many other areas seemed to provide bins with separate compartments for waste and recyclables within their town centres and he questioned if there was any intention of introducing something similar within the County.  The Contracts Manager for the Joint Waste Team explained that a piece of work was currently being carried out for the Forest of Dean District Council and the main issue being identified was the cost.  Currently all waste from litter bins was taken to landfill but if new bins were introduced the material from each compartment would go to different destinations and other areas had reported that there was a lot of contamination.  Whilst it may be something which was easier to implement in larger towns, Tewkesbury Borough and the Forest of Dean District were not dissimilar so it was likely there would be a significant cost implication associated with its introduction in those areas and, based on the tonnages, it was not a high priority.  The Member felt that it could be a missed opportunity to promote a culture change within the area; people were increasingly looking to recycle and not having the appropriate facilities available to allow them to do so was sending out the wrong message.  The Contracts Manager for the Joint Waste Team indicated that she would take this forward at the next route mapping meeting.  The Environment and Waste Policy Officer for the Joint Waste Team advised that this was something which had been considered previously by the Borough Council; at the time another authority had indicated that it would be happy to pass on its street recycling bins as it was finding that it was not able to separate what went into the bins.  If street recycling proved to be unviable, an alternative might be a campaign encouraging people to take their litter home to recycle.

47.8           A Member felt that there may be earning potential in offering a trade waste service and this was something which he suggested Tewkesbury Borough Council should look at in more detail.  In response, clarification was provided that, although Ubico delivered the service, trade waste was not something which had been taken over by the Joint Waste Team and the charging mechanism sat with Tewkesbury Borough Council.  Notwithstanding this, a review of trade waste was included in the Council Plan and the Joint Waste Team was able to provide support in terms of best practice etc. therefore it had also been included in the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee’s outline Business Plan 2017-20 to ensure that appropriate resources were available.  The Chief Executive explained that consideration was being given to maximising income for a variety of services, including commercial waste, and this was an action in both the Council Plan and the Transform Plan; whilst the Joint Waste Team could help with this, responsibility lay with the Council.  Another Member questioned whether something could be included within the Borough News to draw attention to the cost of sending waste to landfill and she was advised that, whilst it would not be possible to include exact costs, an article could certainly be included.  The Environment and Waste Policy Officer for the Joint Waste Team indicated that Cheltenham Borough Council had advertised the £1M savings from diverting waste from landfill on the side of their vehicles using the slogan ‘Thanks a Million’ and Members felt that this was a good promotional tool.

47.9           The Chair thanked the Joint Waste Team representatives for their report and, having considered the information provided, it was

RESOLVED          1.   That the progress made to date in relation to the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee Action Plan 2016/17 be NOTED.

2.   That the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee Outline Business Plan 2017-20 be NOTED.