Decision details

The Executive was informed that the Surrey Waste Partnership, which comprised the waste collection authorities (WCA) and Surrey County Council as the waste disposal authority (WDA), had enabled Surrey authorities to perform increasingly well by working together. This partnership working had contained the costs of waste management in the county as well as enabled improved recycling rates and service improvements for residents.

Members were advised that analysis had indicated that, whilst the current level of co-operation had been beneficial, greater collaboration and co-ownership of the entire waste service would result in significant financial savings and further improvements to the services offered to residents. The analysis had suggested that that up to £12.4m per year could be saved from the collective budgets of WCAs and the WDA through operational efficiencies, increasing recycling, gaining greater value from materials, increasing commercial waste collections, and back office efficiencies.

In addition, the creation of a single entity for waste services in Surrey could further reduce the overall costs of waste management by aligning the operational and management functions of all the authorities within a co-ownership model and ensure that waste management in Surrey was designed as one complete system.

It was reported that neither the Joint Waste Collection Contract (JWCC), nor the Inter Authority Agreement (IAA) that would govern the future working arrangements of the JWCC Authorities currently included any of the waste disposal arrangements currently managed by Surrey County Council. This arrangement resulted in continued duplication of some waste functions, as well as the continued risk that policies and services designed by the disposal authority were not in line with those designed by the collection authorities, and vice versa.

It was therefore proposed to support the further development of the co-owned single tier entity, immediately expand the scope and function of the current IAA between the JWCC Authorities to include some of the waste functions from the county council, and amend the IAA to reflect these changes.

RESOLVED to

                                 (i)        extend the Inter Authority Agreement (IAA) relating to the Joint Waste Collection Contract (JWCC) and the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee to include the Waste Disposal Authority (WDA) functions (as follows) that currently reside with the county council, on the basis that this will not affect how decisions related to the JWCC are made nor have any negative financial implications for Surrey Heath Borough Council

WDA Partnership functions to be included in the IAA:

·       Kerbside improvement initiatives to increase recycling and reduce waste arisings;

·       Payments to waste collection authorities;

·       Data management and monitoring;

·       Policy development and alignment;

·       Performance management;

·       Engagement with government, the waste sector, industry and others on the waste agenda;

                                (ii)        delegate responsibility to the Executive Head Community in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Community Services and other members of the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee to amend the Inter Authority Agreement to enable this expansion; and

                              (iii)        support further development of the co-owned single tier entity model for waste services and asks the Executive Head Community , in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Community to work with partner authorities within the joint collection contract and Surrey Waste Partnership to develop the model with the aim of presenting a business plan to the Executive in 2017.