Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Surrey Heath House, Knoll Road, Camberley, GU15 3HD. View directions

Contact: Democratic Services 

Items
No. Item

14/JW

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 95 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee held on 10 November 2017.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee held on 10 November 2017 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

 

Matters Arising

 

Minute 8/JW Performance Report – It was clarified that if a collection was missed in the Woking Borough Council area on either a Friday or over a weekend then a separate vehicle, set up to collect both recycling and residual waste, would collect the missed collection on the following Monday.

 

Minute 11/JW Communications – It was clarified that the savings arising from the joint waste contract was £2.5million not the £3million stated.

 

All food waste vehicles had now been wrapped.  Wrapping of the refuse, recycling and garden waste collection vehicles would be complete by the end of February 2018.

 

Minute 13/JW New Joiners – It was reported that officers and councillors from Waverley Borough Council had met with the Joint Waste Solutions Director and Amey representatives to examine the data required to develop a stage two price.  Discussions had been positive and a decision on the next steps was expected by the end of February 2018.

15/JW

Declaration of Interests

Members are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and non-pecuniary interests they may have with respect to matters which are to be considered at this meeting. Members who consider they may have an interest are invited to consult the Monitoring Officer or the Democratic Services Officer prior to the meeting.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

16/JW

Mobilisation Update

To receive a verbal update on the work taking place to mobilise the Joint Waste Collection Services Contract across partner authorities.

Minutes:

The Committee was briefed on the next stages in the mobilisation process which was expected to commence in Surrey Heath on 5th February 2018.  The briefing covered staffing matters, ICT, Garden Waste collections and an operational update.

 

Staffing

 

Amey had met with Biffa staff to discuss the impending changes and any concerns that they might have about the transfer to Amey contracts under the TUPE regulations.  Staff Induction Workshops would take place on 27th January 2018 to enable all staff transferring to be briefed on Amey policies and procedures.

 

ICT

 

It was reported that online forms were now operational for Woking Borough Council residents.

 

Surrey Heath’s contact centre would be transferred to Amey and online information migrated to the Joint Waste Solutions (JWS) website.  Online forms specific to Surrey Heath were being finalised.  It was expected that testing and finalisation of these forms would be complete by 26th January 2017 and would go live on 5th February 2018.

 

Garden Waste

 

Data relating to Surrey Heath residents participating in the garden waste collection scheme had been uploaded to the JWS portal.  All customers would receive an email inviting them to sign up to Amey’s garden waste scheme in advance of the contract commencement on 5th February 2018.

 

Operations

 

It was reported that, following the difficulties experienced with the mobilisation of Elmbridge Borough Council and the successful use of a phased transition to mobilise Woking Borough Council, the JWS Partnership was keen to mobilise the contract in Surrey Heath on a phased basis.  This was at odds with Amey’s initial desire to implement round changes and new ways of working in Surrey Heath from the first day of the contract mobilisation.

 

The Joint Waste Partnering Board had provided JWS officers with the steer that mobilisation on an ‘as is’ basis was unacceptable and that any additional cost incurred as a result of the phased implementation should be shared between the partner authorities and Amey.

 

It was reported that, following discussions with Amey, Surrey Heath would be mobilised as close to an ‘as is’ basis as possible.  However, although refuse and recycling collections would continue unchanged five new collection rounds would be created to enable the collection of food waste using dedicated food waste vehicles.  This approach would be in place for the first three months whilst crews adjusted to the new ways of working, before new recycling nd refuse routes were implemented.

 

It was estimated that the phased approach preferred by the Council’s would cost an additional £120,000 over three months.  Amey had agreed to pay £45,000 of this cost with the remaining £75,000 cost split between the four partner authorities. 

 

Arising from Member’s questions and comments the following points were noted:

 

·         Following the Elmbridge mobilisation Amey had developed a more robust staff engagement strategy with staff engagement now occurring earlier in the mobilisation process.  This approach had proved successful when Woking was mobilised.

·         It took between 9 and 12 months for a vehicle order to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16/JW

17/JW

2018/19 Budget Proposals pdf icon PDF 280 KB

To consider a report setting out the proposed budget for the Joint Waste Services for the 2018/19 Financial Year.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report setting out a proposed budget for the JWS project for the 2018/19 financial year.

 

It was stressed that, due to the lack of historical data and the fact that the scope of JWS’s work would evolve as work continued to establish the organisation, assumptions had been made in a number of budgetary areas and a number of budget lines were estimated costs.  Data collected throughout the 2018/19 financial year would be used to inform a more exact budget for the 2019/20 financial year.

 

It was noted that the budget set aside for resident engagement endeavoured to consider all possible spend requirements and actual costs could be lower than projected.  Furthermore the costs attributed to resident engagement in the budget may have been attributed to other budget codes in partner authorities in previous years for example postage.

 

Arising from the subsequent discussion the following points were noted:

 

·         In 2018/19, the Contract Management Office would look different to the one set up for the contract mobilisation period consequently the budget included additional funds to implement any changes that would be required for example to pay for any legal and human resource costs incurred.

·         Final indexation rates were expected at the end of March and the draft budget included an assumed indexation rate of 3%.

·         It was agreed that any material containing important information should be personally addressed to individual households.

·         Budget monitoring reports would be discussed on a quarterly basis by the Joint Waste Contract Partnering Board.

·         The content of residual waste bins was not currently checked.  It was recognised that more could be done to encourage residents to recycle more for example by monitoring the weight of bins.

·         The Surrey Waste Partnership had met with waste operators to discuss how the disposal of nappies might be improved however any changes would not occur in the near future.

·         It was stressed that engagement activities would focus on what could be done at a local level to support the county wide initiatives developed by the Surrey Waste Partnership.

·         If additional local authorities joined the partnership then the budget would be revisited.

·         Partner authorities would only be invoiced for work done.

 

It was noted that in line with the requirements of the Inter Authority Agreement the draft budget would need to be commended to each partner authority for approval.

 

RESOLVED that the draft 2018/19 budget, as set out at Annex 1 of the report, be approved for submission for partner authority approval.

18/JW

Exclusion of Public and Press

Minutes:

RESOLVED that pursuant to Regulation 4 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) Regulations 2012, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of item 6 which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972:

 

(3)        Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority).

 

19/JW

Potential Expansion of the Joint Waste Collection Contract pdf icon PDF 290 KB

To consider a report setting out potential expansion opportunities for the joint waste contract.

 

Note

 

Annexes 1 and 2 are restricted under Regulation 4 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) Regulations 2012, Paragraph (3) Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

 

Any substantive discussion of their content will require the Chairman to move the following motion:

 

That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) and Regulation 4 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report seeking endorsement of a proposal to support an application from Tandridge District Council to join the Joint Waste Solutions Partnership if such an approach was received.

 

The Inter Authority Agreement (IAA) set out the mechanism by which other Surrey district and borough councils that had not been part of the original joint partnership contract might have the opportunity join the contract should they wish to do so. The IAA was clear that whilst a local authority could ask to join the JWS contract the decision to admit that local authority to the contract rested with existing partner authorities and that new partners should only be admitted to the contract if:

 

·         it was lawful to do so;

·         there was a positive benefit to the partner authorities; and

·         the new joiner contributed towards the cost of the initial procurement, mobilisation and set up of the Joint Contract through a joining fee or other benefit.

 

Tandridge District Council had expressed interest in becoming a party to the joint contract and, in line with IAA requirements, had been working with Amey and JWS Officers to develop the Stage 3 report required as part of the admission process.  Tandridge District Council would be meeting on 31st January 2018 to consider formally requesting admission to the Partnership. 

 

The Committee was informed that legal advice had confirmed that it was lawful for Tandridge to join the Partnership.  It was acknowledged that whilst the geographical distance and the lack of geographical borders between Tandridge and the existing partner authorities meant that there would be no immediate contract savings there were a number of medium term opportunities that would result from admitting a new member including reduced contract costs, the development of new services and reduced client overheads.  Furthermore Tandridge’s admission to the Partnership would help facilitate the long term vison of the creation of a single Surrey wide waste entity.

 

It was noted that the Contract would be reviewed if additional local authorities joined the partnership. 

 

RESOLVED that the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee recommend to the Partner Authorities that, on the basis no existing partner is financially disadvantaged, should Tandridge District Council’s Stage 3 price demonstrate good value and it requests admission to the Joint Contract then the request should be approved