Agenda item

a)    Joint Report of Corporate Director Regeneration and Local Services and Director of Transformation and Partnerships

b)    Presentation by Alan Patrickson, Head of Projects and Business Services

The Committee considered the Joint Report of the Corporate Director Regeneration and Local Services and the Director of Transformation and Partnerships that provided Members with supporting information in advance of the update on the waste programme (for copy of report, see file of minutes).

Members received a presentation from the Head of Projects and Business Services that focused on the following:-

·       Garden Waste Scheme 2017 Update

·       Capital Programme Update

·       Waste Transfer Station Capital Programme Update

·       National Trends in Waste

·       UK Recycling Performance

·       Effects of Brexit

·       Austerity

The Head of Projects and Business Services updated members that there had been an increase in the price of the garden waste collections by five pounds taking the annual fee to £25.00 per annum. He also advised that the take up had been good and was slightly ahead of last year, new collections would run over a two-week collection period with week one collections starting at the end of March and week two collections the first week in April and would run for 33 weeks.  Members were advised that the tonnage of garden waste is greater at the beginning of the collection period.

Councillor Clare referred to the garden waste collection timetable and asked if the period could be extended without an increase in the number of collections as the warmer autumns and winters meant leaves were still falling long after the collections had stopped and perhaps having a break during the summer months when the amount of garden waste reduced.

The Head of Projects and Business Services advised that tonnage varied but was less during the summer holiday period however, the tonnage in the autumn was not as high as the councillor would expect as leaves were not as heavy as grass cuttings. By having a regular collection schedule ensured that people knew when they needed to put their bins out and would cause the least confusion to residents. The Head of Projects and Business Services advised there would be 17 collections again this year.

Councillor Holland indicated that waste does not have holidays and this department were outstanding and wished to congratulate the team on the high quality standards, their management skills and how they tackled problems.

Mr T Bolton referred to the household waste recycling centres and asked if they monitored the traffic queuing at centres as at Seaham he had witnessed there had been a lot of traffic from the Household Waste Recycling Centre backing up onto the roundabout and impeding the flow of traffic and he had also noticed similar incidents at Pity Me Household Waste Recycling Centre which was close to a major roundabout.

The Head of Projects and Business Services replied that they do have Inspectors who go and visit the operators at Household Waste Recycling Centres. If there was a skip turnaround at one of the centres then they had to temporarily close the site for Health and Safety reasons as no members of the public are allowed on the site at this time and this closure may impact on traffic especially at weekends when the Household Waste Recycling Centres were very busy. The two sites mentioned do have a short drive which was a constant challenge to monitor. The current contractors provided a really good service and were responsive to comments, the officer would take the comments back to the contractors.

The Chairman sought clarification if they had CCTV equipment in operation at the gates to the sites so if people were leaving rubbish at the gates they could prosecute for fly-tipping. The Head of Projects and Business Services responded that they had CCTV at all sites and they used what evidence they had but CCTV was mainly used for the safety of staff so the cameras were not positioned to catch people fly-tipping.

Resolved: That the report be noted.