Agenda and minutes

It was noted that following a change in leadership at Surrey Heath Borough Council Councillor Chapman was no longer Surrey Heath’s representative on the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee.  It was agreed that Councillor Goodman would chair the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee for the remainder of the 2019/20 municipal year.

COUNCILLOR GOODMAN IN THE CHAIR

To receive the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee held on the 18^th December 2019.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Joint waste Collection services Committee held on 18^th December 2020 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

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 Manager prior to the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive an update on the performance of the joint waste contract across the partnership area.

The Committee considered a report summarising the position in relation to recycling performance and operational performance across each of the partner authorities at the end of the second quarter (July to September 2019) of the 2019/20 municipal year.

Joint Waste Solutions (JWS) had asked Suez to quality assure any data that they collected before it was uploaded to the performance reporting portal.  This additional step had delayed the collation of the data for quarter three (October to December) however it was expected that this process would be expedited more quickly going forward.

It was noted that there had been a decrease in the amount of Dry Mixed Recycling collected across Surrey and that of the tonnages collected an increasing proportion was being considered non-recylable either due to contamination or because of difficulties in identifying markets for the material.  Anecdotal evidence also suggested that residents were starting to change their behaviour when shopping and this could be impacting on tonnages.

The Committee queried the tonnages given for fly tipping both across Surrey and within individual partner authorities.  It was clarified that the figures related to tonnages recorded at the weighbridges and whilst some authorities were seeing a decrease in fly-tipping, for three of the four Joint Contract authorities there had been an increase, as stated in the performance report.  It was agreed that the possibility of providing more detail would be explored.

The Committee noted the update.

To receive a presentation from Amey on their Annual Contract Improvement Plan.

The Board received a presentation providing an update on the work taking place to implement the Contract Improvement Plan:

A restructure of Amey’s Operational Team was now complete and each site was now overseen by a Site Manager and Assistant Site Manager.  Performance targets had been agreed with each site and weekly performance reporting mechanisms had been put in place. 

The Improvement Plan had been shared with Joint Waste Solutions (JWS) to ensure that work was not duplicated and appropriate links were developed.  Work had already started on the actions scheduled for action during the first quarter of the year and Amey expressed confidence in their ability to deliver everything listed in the Improvement Plan.

Arising from the subsequent discussion the following points were noted:

·         Operational crews were being encouraged to report all close call incidents so that action could be taken to prevent them becoming an incident.  Information gathered would then be used to raise awareness amongst the public.

·         Amey was exploring a number of options to reduce CO₂ emissions including the provision of electric charging points at depots, tackling excessive braking, reducing the length of time that vehicle engines were left idling, route optimisation and the use of electric vehicles.  It was agreed that Climate Change would be added as a work stream.

·         The Rentstart Charity in Elmbridge could provide links to those looking for employment.

·         Data collected during the 2019/20 municipal year would be used to provide baseline data.

·         The restructure had provided greater accountability at unit level and improvements in performance were already being seen.

The Committee noted the update.

To receive a presentation on the Joint Waste Solutions work programme for 2020/21.

The Committee received a presentation on the proposed work programme for the Joint Waste Solutions (JWS) Operations Team during the 2020/21 municipal year.

It was proposed that the three main priorities for JWS during 2020/21 would be:

·         Improving recycling performance

·         Improving the performance of the Joint Waste Contract

·         Improving the performance of the street cleansing element of the contract.

Each priority would them subdivided into three defined work areas: activities that would directly impact upon and improve internal systems, activities which would focus on the improvement of the contract and activities that would focus on residents’ behaviour including both targeted interventions and more general messages.

It was reported that collection crews were being subjected to increasing levels of aggression from members of the public whilst carrying out their work.  It was agreed that using video footage from vehicle cameras of incidents and near misses could be used as part of a media campaign to raise awareness of the problem.

It was suggested that the graphics used in the annual calendar should be incorporated into the website to break up the text.

The Committee noted the update.

To consider a report setting out the financial position at the end of the third quarter (September to December 2019) of the 2019/20 financial year.

The Committee received a report summarising the financial position of Joint Waste Solutions at the end of the third quarter (October to December 2019) of the 2019/20 financial year. 

It was noted that the projected year end CMO expenditure was £2,350,782 which would represent an underspend of £48,556 when compared to the agreed budgets and there was a provisional total spend of £362,530 for each of the partner authorities.

Following an adjustment to the indexation rates used, the projected year end core charge was projected to be £11,183,205, representing an underspend of £541,533 at year end.

The Committee noted the report.  

The next scheduled meeting of the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee will take place on Wednesday 17^th June 2020 at 2pm.

It was noted that the next scheduled meeting of the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee would take place on Wednesday 17^th June 2020 at 2pm.