Agenda item

To consider the progress made to date in relation to the 2018/19 Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee Action Plan.

46.1          Attention was drawn to the report of the Head of Community Services, circulated at Pages No. 28-65, which provided an update on progress against the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee Action Plan 2018/19.  Members were asked to consider the report.

46.2          Members were reminded that Tewkesbury Borough Council had joined the Joint Waste Committee in December 2014 and five of the local authorities within Gloucestershire were now members.  The Joint Waste Committee produced a three-year rolling business plan, and an annual action plan, and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered progress made against those plans.  The action plan for 2018/19 was attached in full at Appendix 2 to the report and progress against actions impacting on Tewkesbury Borough Council was set out at Page No. 30, Paragraph 3.1 of the report.  The Head of Community Services made particular reference to the direct delivery of all residual waste streams to the Javelin Park Energy from Waste facility from 2019.  He advised that good progress had been made in discussions with the Joint Waste Committee and Gloucestershire County Council in order to minimise disruption to Tewkesbury Borough residents; he undertook to update Members further once negotiations were complete. 

46.3           The Head of the Joint Waste Team explained that the Team provided support to the Joint Waste Committee and the waste management officers at each partner Council.  In highlighting some of the key areas of the action plan, he explained that Cotswold District Council’s vehicle fleet was coming to the end of its useful life and the Committee had supported a partnership-wide service benchmarking study with a view to inform wider service alignment across all partners.  He explained that refuse, food waste and garden waste collection was already fairly consistent across the county but recycling did tend to vary; whilst there were good reasons for this, there was scope to ensure that all authorities collected the same materials so that residents were clear on what could and could not be recycled, which was an ongoing problem – there were things that could be done to align services without making them identical.  A significant amount of time had been spent on monitoring the Javelin Park contract and it was noted that the construction project was on track so the facility could be operating by March 2019.  The discussions about how waste would be delivered were ongoing; this had highlighted the benefits of having a partnership in place as Gloucestershire County Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council had been able to get together and have an honest discussion about their objectives and desires in order to come up with a sensible outcome for both authorities. 

46.4           In addition to the projects and tasks identified in the action plan, the Joint Waste Team carried out cyclical tasks and a client-side role for the waste, recycling and street cleansing contracts and provided a customer service interface for contract, policy and service-related queries and complaints which were highlighted at Page No. 31, Paragraph 4.1 of the report.  The current business plan was attached to the report at Appendix 1.  It was noted that a new national waste resources strategy was anticipated to be issued by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) before the end of the financial year and its publication would be a timely opportunity to review the Gloucestershire Waste Strategy to refresh the vision for waste management across the county and set longer term objectives.

46.5          With regard to the action plan at Appendix 2, a Member drew attention to Action 4.12 ‘Work with Ubico to undertake a review of the discretionary trade waste service to ensure it is operating on a viable commercial level’ and raised concern that no progress was being made despite this having been discussed for a number of years; in his view, the amber status was not an accurate reflection of this project.  The Head of Community Services felt that the amber status was correct as there was a trade waste service in operation; whilst it was not failing, it was not profitable and he was bringing a report to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in February 2019 with a full set of options to move this forward.  The Member went on to express the view that the overall report was very general and was not specific to Tewkesbury Borough Council – this had been raised as a concern previously and he asked for a focused report to be brought to the Committee in six months’ time.  In response, the Head of Community Services reminded Members that Tewkesbury Borough Council was part of the Joint Waste Committee and he felt it was important that the Committee was kept informed of what was happening across the county.  He confirmed that, in future, a section specific to Tewkesbury Borough Council could be included within the report; however, he would ensure that an update report was brought to the Committee in six months as an exception with the concerns specific to Tewkesbury Borough Council appended to that report.

46.6           In response to a query as to whether the other two local authorities in Gloucestershire would be joining the Joint Waste Committee, Members were advised that, whilst there was regular dialogue with both Gloucester City and Stroud District Councils, and both had shown an interest in joining, there was no firm commitment from either at this stage.   A Member noted that Tewkesbury Borough Council would have agreed to certain criteria when it had joined the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Partnership in 2014 and she questioned whether the agreement had been renegotiated at any point.  The Head of Community Services explained that the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Partnership had an inter-authority agreement which had first been developed in 2012 and, to the best of his knowledge, that had not been amended when Tewkesbury Borough Council had joined.  A refresh of the waste strategy was pending and there was a desire among the partner councils to look at the way costs were shared so it may also be opportune to revisit the agreement and ensure it remained fit for purpose.  A Member expressed the view that the report might be of interest to the wider membership of the Council and, whilst it was noted that all Members could access reports, the Head of Democratic Services indicated that she would be happy to circulate this specific report following the meeting.

46.7          It was

RESOLVED          1. That the progress made to date in relation to the 2018/19 Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee Action Plan be NOTED.

2. That a six month interim report, with a specific focus on Tewkesbury Borough Council, be brought to the Committee in April 2019.