Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chairman for the 2023/24 municipal year.

RESOLVED that Councillor Ashley Tilley, Elmbridge Borough Council, be elected as Chairman of the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee for the 2023/24 Municipal Year.

COUNCILLOR TILLING IN THE CHAIR

To appoint a Vice-Chairman for the 2023/24 Municipal Year.

RESOLVED that Councillor Peter Graves, Woking Borough Council, be elected as Vice-Chairman of the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee for the 202/24 Municipal Year.

To confirm as being as being a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee held on 8^th March 2023.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee held on 8^th March 2023 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive and note any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive a report setting out the financial position of Joint Waste Solutions at the end of the 2022/23 financial year.

The Committee received a report summarising the financial position of Joint Waste Solutions (JWS) at the end of the 2022/23 financial year.

It was reported that at the end of the 2022-23 financial year the Contract Management Office (CMO) expenditure was £2,123,076, against a combined annual budget of £2,390,850.  Deduction of the carry forward amounts set out below reduced the £267,774 underspend to £146,482.

In contrast the Core Contract budget had, at year end, been overspent by £329,607.  This overspend was attributed to higher than anticipated inflationary uplifts; inflation had been 6.71% compared to the 4% inflationary figure used when the budget had been set..

The Variable Contract budget had been overspent by £202,039 with the majority of the overspend being attributed to the HGV Driver Market Supplement (£363,419) and the salary uplifts required for the additional bank holidays and increases in National Insurance  (£190,956) which had not been accounted for during the budget setting process.  The reported year end overspend had been reduced due to the inclusion of a £143,361 underspend in the Garden Waste budget due to the service suspensions and the receipt of £132,341 of unbudgeted KPI income.

The Committee noted the report.

To receive a report and presentation summarising the work of Joint Waste Solutions during the 2022/23 financial year.

The Group received a presentation summarising the work of JWS during the 2022/23 financial year and the following key areas of work were noted:

·         The application of QR codes to litter bins in Surrey Heath to simplify the process of reporting full bins or any problems.  This work would now be rolled out across Elmbridge and Mole Valley.

·         The introduction of measured to reduce contamination of Dry Mixed Recycling (DMR) bins at communal properties in Elmbridge and Surrey Heath. 

·         The roll out of food waste collections to approximately 2750 flats in Surrey Heath which had not previously be receiving the service.  This would now be replicated in other joint contract areas.

·         The Surrey Environment Partnership’s Own Your Impact campaign promoting food waste recycling, waste reduction and reduction of contaminated DMR bins had been amplified in the joint contract area.  Work that had resulted in over 300,000 views of the campaign videos, 4.5million viewings of digital adverts and 1.3million viewings of promoted Facebook posts.

·         The production of a video that could be used to supplement collection crews’ training in relation to contamination of recycling bins.

·         The completion of a waste reduction and incentive scheme trial in Elmbridge which aimed to encourage residents to think about and reduce their waste.  This would now be rolled out across Surrey.

·         Intervention work to establish why residents did not recycle food waste was carried out with 23,500 households in Elmbridge and Mole Valley had resulted in a 13-16% increase in the number of food waste bins being presented for collection.  The learning from this work would be used to develop and improve intervention work going forward.

The Committee was informed that the main reasons given for not making use of the food waste recycling service included a perception that it was unhygienic, a lack of awareness of how much food was actually being thrown away and that for some it was more convenient to put food waste in with their general waste than collect it separately.

It was questioned why the JWS home page, which Council websites linked to when reporting an issue or making a service request, asked residents to select which local authority area they were in as this appeared to be an unnecessary additional step in the process.  It was clarified that the home page was used as a place to put additional information that wasn’t displayed elsewhere in the reporting process for example information about service disruptions.  It was agreed that the possibility of adding this information directly to the reporting pages to remove a potentially extraneous step from the process would be followed up.

It was noted that a significant amount of monitoring took place both before and after any interventions were put in place in respect of the contamination trails in Elmbridge which enabled JWS to ascertain how effective different interventions were.  At reducing contamination.  It was agreed that this monitoring information would be shared with the Committee.

Concern that incorporating carbon reduction activities into general work areas could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6/JW

To consider a report summarising the recycling performance of the partner authorities at the end of the fourth quarter (September to December 2022) of the 2022/23 financial year.

The Committee received a report summarising the quarterly position in respect of recycling performance and operational performance across the joint contract area at the end of the fourth quarter (January to March 2023) of the 2022-23 financial year.

It was reported that across Surrey the tonnages collected continued to show a year on year reduction with a 8.5% decrease in tonnages in March 2023 compared to March 2022.  In respect of the joint contract authorities the following year on year changes in tonnages for each waste stream noted:

Whilst there was no obvious reason for the fall in food waste tonnages being collected, there had been no corresponding rise in residual waste tonnages, and it was considered that the increasing costs being faced by households was driving a change in attitudes with either less being wasted or households cutting back.

It was acknowledged that the introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility when it came to reducing packaging could reduce tonnages.  However it was stressed that there was currently no market for a lot of the alternative packaging being introduced, for example plastic pouches and consequently a lot was not considered to be recyclable.  It was hoped that the Government would provide more guidance on this in the near future.

It was clarified that at 15 repeated missed collections out of over 5,000 collections a week in Elmbridge the number was proportionately small and predominantly related to the non-completion of garden waste collection rounds due  a combination of blocked access roads and the amount of garden waste being put out for collection which meant that collection lorries needed to be emptied up to three times a day a process which could take between one and one and a half hours a time.

The Committee noted the report.

To receive a presentation from Amey summarising the work carried out during the 2022/23 financial year to meet the aims and objectives set out in the Contract Improvement Plan.

The Committee received a report summarising the progress made by Amey towards achieving the aims, priorities and objectives set out in the contract improvement plan for 2022-23. 

Following an increase in the number of incidents of aggression being directed towards collection and street cleansing crews by members of the public Amey was working with partner authorities and JWS to raise awareness of the problem and ameliorate the impact that these incidents were having on crews.

All partner areas were seeing a significant increase in the volume of garden waste being left out for collection and this was impacting on crews’ ability to complete rounds on the scheduled collection dates.  The situation was compounded by the age of the vehicles which was contributing to rising breakdown rates.  Additional resources had been put into the worst affected areas, with an additional crew in Woking working three or four days a week and a fourth vehicle had been brought in to supplement resources in Elmbridge.  The majority of missed collections were completed on the following day with Saturdays being used to catch up when necessary.

With the exception of the street cleansing forms, Elmbridge was now integrated with Amey’s ICT system Whitespace.  It was expected that Elmbridge would be fully integrated with WhiteSpace in the coming weeks.  Work to integrate Mole Valley was underway.

It was clarified that textiles and small electrical goods left out for collection were placed in a small cage under the body of the collection vehicles.  When this cage was full, any further items were stockpiled at a set location for collection by a separate vehicle.  It was acknowledged that this was not an ideal solution and work was taking place to ensure that any stockpiles were collected as soon as possible.

Concern about the use of general waste sacks being used in the recycling sections of dual litter bins in Elmbridge was acknowledged.  It was not known if this had been a regular or one off occurrence and the matter would be followed up.

It was clarified that the Risk Assessment in the Contract Service Report provided an assessment of identified risks to the contract as a whole.  These were addressed in Amey’s business continuity plans and mitigating measures had been implemented for each area.

The Committee noted the report.

The next scheduled meeting of the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee will take place on Thursday 28^th September 2023 at 11.30am.

It was noted that the next scheduled meeting of the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee would take place on Thursday 28^th September 2023 at 11.30am.