Agenda item

To receive a presentation from Councillor Jim Mason – Lead Member for Clean and Green Environment.  

66.1           The Mayor invited the Lead Member for Clean and Green Environment, Councillor J R Mason, to make his presentation to the Council.

66.2           The presentation covered the following main points:

·         Waste, Recycling and Street Cleansing Services – Partnership Working – The Council was a member of the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee which was the strategic coordinator for waste collection (Districts) and disposal (County). The Joint Waste Committee was served by the Joint Waste Team whose principal role was to specify, plan, procure, monitor, co-ordinate and improve the delivery of waste, recycling and street cleansing services. The Joint Waste Team was delivering a number of large projects for the Council including: procurement of a new waste, recycling and street cleaning vehicle fleet; retendering the contract for the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) for recycling; calendars, campaigns and other waste communications; and monitoring of contracts with service providers including Ubico, Grundon, WEEE (electricals) and textile recyclers. Next year the team would be prioritising communications and service reviews of trade waste, garden waste and bulky waste.

·         Direct Services Provided by Ubico – Ubico had commenced trading in April 2015 and provided direct services including waste (garden, bulky, clinical and fly-tip clearance), recycling, food and clinical waste as well as street cleansing and grounds maintenance services. Currently 99.95% of refuse, recycling, garden, food and trade waste collections were on schedule.

·         Performance To Date up to Quarter 2 of 2016/17 – 54.94% of waste was recycled, reused or composted which was an increase of 3.15% between July and September 2016. In terms of performance against the previous year, refuse was down by 223.75 tonnes which meant a decrease in waste going to landfill; recycling was up by 282.28 tonnes; garden waste had increased by 411.95 tonnes; and the collection of food waste had increased by 266.54 tonnes.

·         Environmental Health – 1,041 service requests had been dealt with by the Environmental Health and Licensing Teams since 1 April 2016. Highlights included: three filthy and verminous premises being cleared; two Notices being issued to deal with poor drainage; and two premises causing a statutory nuisance had been dealt with.

·         Housing Conditions – 25 housing condition complaints had been investigated since April with three formal actions being taken: one Prohibition Order; one Improvement Notice; and one Hazard Awareness Notice. In terms of Disabled Facilities Grants, 60 applications had been received since April and around 40 were still being delivered; these included adaptations such as showers, stair lifts and door threshold ramps.

·         Warm and Well Scheme – This aimed to improve energy efficiency in the home and reduce the risk of fuel poverty and associated health problems. Since 2001, the scheme had provided energy advice to thousands of households in Gloucestershire and had improved more than 41,500 properties. Since April, there had been 186 enquiries to the scheme with 23 applications being processed for new (free government) boilers and seven properties had been insulated.

·         Other Pollution Control – The Council was duty bound to monitor air quality and Officers visited 17 monitoring sites in the Borough on a monthly basis to place diffusion tubes to monitor that data. There was one air quality management area in Tewkesbury, centred at the lower end of Tewkesbury High Street, and the information gained from the monitoring sites was used to inform control measures and developments. Officers also inspected 25 industrial premises that emitted to the atmosphere and checked the quality of private water supplies of which there were 15 in the Borough.

·         Planning Applications – 176 applications had been considered for environmental health matters; this could also include ‘screening’ applications for contaminated land matters e.g. making sure that areas which may have suffered historic contamination, but were now to be developed, were treated appropriately.

·         Food Inspections – There were over 800 registered food premises/operators in the Borough and, since April, Officers had inspected 115 premises, served 23 Hygiene Improvement Notices and undertaken two prosecutions. However, the majority of premises in the Borough were at a good standard with most rated at the maximum five stars in the national food hygiene rating system. Since April there had been 62 food complaints received and investigated; 131 infectious diseases investigated; and Officers had been helping an exporter to China by providing certificates for shellfish exports.

·         Regulation of Health and Safety at Work – Officers had attended an Inquest and gave evidence regarding a fatality at the Morrison’s supermarket in Tewkesbury; the evidence given was based on a comprehensive investigation that had been carried out. Since April, 30 serious accidents / incidents / near misses were reported from businesses in the Borough and investigated by Officers along with 14 complaints regarding health and safety at work issues. The environmental health, housing and property teams worked together to carry out weekly safety inspections of a dozen children’s playgrounds throughout the Borough. In addition, the environmental health team was working with other teams throughout the County, the Trading Standards service and the Growth Hub on a ‘Better Business for All’ project which aimed to demystify business regulation, increase the good working relations between business and regulators and show how good awareness of standards could increase and improve productivity and profits. 

·         Environmental Crimes – Although flytipping enforcement was carried out over the whole District, a focus was being placed on ‘hotspots’ in Sandhurst Lane, Longford and Coriander Drive, Churchdown with some initial success being seen. 492 fly tips had been reported, investigated and cleared in the six months since April 2016. In addition, 144 abandoned vehicles had been dealt with in the same period. The Council, in partnership with Parish and Town Councils, was looking to employ an Environmental Warden in the new financial year and, to date, 11 Parish Councils had expressed an interest in the proposed joint venture which would help combat enviro-crimes especially dog fouling.

·         Environmental Crimes – Education – Three times a year, Officers and local Police worked with a different Parish to carry out dog fouling patrols in the early morning and evening to promote responsible dog ownership. This was also a good opportunity to promote the Council’s Paws on Patrol Scheme for dog walkers to pass community safety and environmental crimes over to the appropriate authorities. There were also over 200 volunteer litter pickers that the Council supported; this included the provision of insurance.

·         Grounds Maintenance and Street Cleaning – Ubico serviced between 300 and 320 acres throughout the Borough and carried out environmental support services such as mowing; strimming; hedge cutting; shrub maintenance; tree planting and maintenance; sports field marking and maintenance; cemetery maintenance; and street cleansing. On average, grass cutting was carried out on each area of land 12 times a year with sports pitches being maintained and marked out annually. In addition, supervisors carried out regular, unannounced, quality checks.

·         Land Drainage – The Council was contracted by Gloucestershire County Council to ensure riparian owners kept their watercourses clear and able to convey water. 42 complaints about watercourses had been considered since April. 15 planning applications had been considered for potential adverse land drainage implications and major watercourse improvements were soon to be delivered in Bishop’s Cleeve and Chaceley using funding from a variety of external sources. There were other projects in the pipeline and additional projects were always being considered. 9,000 kilometres of Tewkesbury Borough Council owned watercourses was annually maintained with programmes of de-silting and flail cutting of vegetation.

·         Licensing – The Council was the licensing authority for a number of different licenses, the principal ones being taxis, alcohol and gambling licences. The Council did not only process and issue licences but also carried out regulatory activities to make sure licence conditions were kept to.

66.3           The Mayor thanked the Lead Member for his informative presentation and invited questions from Members. In response, a Member queried what the actual recycling percentages were currently. She was advised that they were currently at 54%. In terms of riparian ownership, a Member questioned how the Council could ensure people accepted their responsibilities and what sanctions it had if they did not. In response, Members were advised that, fortunately, when owners were asked to carry out works they usually did which meant the Council did not need to take sanctions. However, it did have the power, should it wish to use it, to serve Notices under the Land Drainage Act. This power had been delegated to it by the Lead Local Flood Authority, Gloucestershire County Council; there were approximately 100 served in a year.

66.4           Referring to the Environmental Warden, a Member questioned who would pay for the post. In response, she was advised that the scheme would be cost neutral for Tewkesbury Borough Council or it would not go ahead. The Borough Council would put in resources in kind i.e. management, payroll, HR etc. and Parishes would contribute on a pro-rata basis depending on what they wanted from the service. The next stage of the process was to hold a meeting with Parishes to put together a joint agreement; once that agreement was signed the scheme could go ahead. With regard to grass cutting, a Member understood from a recent place planning meeting that this was carried out on a 2/3 week cycle and he questioned whether Members could have the schedule for different areas of the Borough. He was advised that this could be provided. In terms of flytipping, and the prosecution thereof, the Lead Member indicated that this was a nationwide issue but the Council was taking steps which he hoped would start to see some results, including prosecutions, soon.

66.5           A Member made a complaint that the waste collections in her road on Cleeve Hill were regularly missed and she felt this needed to be addressed; she had previously been told that this was due to the road being on a steep hill but she did not feel that was an acceptable reason for so many collections being missed. The Lead Member undertook to look into this issue. Another Member mentioned particular instances of broken glass being a problem in his area and the Lead Member suggested that the local Parish Council may wish to recruit litter pickers to tackle that issue.

66.6           The Lead Member indicated that the Council’s Environmental Health Manager, David Steels, would be leaving the Council shortly and he took the opportunity to wish him luck for his future endeavours. Members joined him in those sentiments.

66.7           Accordingly, it was

                  RESOLVED          That the presentation provided by the Lead Member for Clean                                and Green Environment be NOTED.