To receive a presentation from Joint Waste Solutions on the current status of the waste collection service in Surrey Heath and an overview of the future direction of the service.
Minutes:
Kelly Goldsmith, Partnership Director and Jo Chauhan, Operations Director, gave a presentation in respect of Joint Waste Solutions’ (JWS) work to manage the Borough’s waste collection services which were provided through a partnership agreement with Elmbridge, Mole Valley and Woking Councils with a single operational team managing the contract with Amey.
It was reported that the Covid-19 pandemic had continued to impact on waste collections in the Borough over the past year with increasing levels of household waste being collected at the kerbside. A national shortage of HGV drivers, during the second half of 2021, had heavily impacted the joint contract area and whilst it had been possible to maintain collections of residual, dry mixed recycling (DMR) and food waste by redeploying managers and other depot staff with HGV licences and loaning drivers across the joint contract area, there had been insufficient drivers available to maintain a full garden waste collection service. Consequently, in line with DEFRA guidance, the garden waste service had been suspended in August 2021. Garden waste collections had since been reinstated on a reduced cyclical basis and Amey and JWS were working hard to reinstate a full service as soon as possible. Whilst it was hoped that a regular garden waste collection service would be resumed in February 2022 this would not be confirmed until JWS and Amey were certain that it would be sustainable. All subscribers to the Garden Waste Service had been offered the option to extend their subscription on a pro-rata basis for the length of time that collections had not taken place.
The Committee was informed that there were currently 17 driver vacancies across the contract area and Amey had managed to secure the services of eight agency drivers, reducing the overall number of vacancies across the joint contract area to nine. In an effort to ameliorate the shortage of HGV drivers a package of initiatives including intensive HGV driver training courses, a new recruitment and retention scheme and the payment of a market supplement to HGV drivers had been put in place. Amey was also working closely with recruitment agencies to identify drivers. It was agreed that a breakdown of driver vacancies in Surrey Heath each quarter for the past four years would be circulated.
It was noted that the contract’s performance was measured against a number of performance indicators which were reported on a quarterly basis to the Joint Waste Collection Services Committee, with more generalised trend data being presented to the Surrey Environment Partnership on a quarterly basis. It was reported that the service was currently performing well against its agreed target of 80 missed bins per 100,000 with 38.7 bins missed in the third quarter of 2021 (October to December 2021). With regards to street cleansing, during the third quarter of 2021 only 0.5% of the 300 street transects surveyed were rated as falling below the agreed Grade B standards (under the NI195 Methodology) against a target of 4%.
Analysis of waste collections in the Borough showed that whilst total volumes of waste were higher than in previous years there had been a significant reduction in the volume of recylates collected in the Borough during the latter part of 2021 a reduction which was primarily attributed to the suspension of garden waste collections. Notwithstanding this decrease, Surrey Heath was currently ranked fifth nationally for its recycling rates.
Contamination of DMR, particularly in flatted developments, had an impact on the Council’s recycling rates and JWS’s Low Performing Areas Team was working to address this both directly residents and households where multiple incidents of contamination had been identified, through the use of targeted communications and new style bins, and with collection crews to improve their understanding of the importance of preventing contamination entering the waste stream with the introduction of Recycling Champions and crew education videos. Moves which had resulted in a significant reduction in the number of loads being rejected by Materials Recycling Facilities (MRF).
The Committee expressed their frustration with the quality of the communications with residents over the suspension of the garden waste service. Members drew officers’ attention to particular concerns over the delays in informing residents that services were being suspended and the wording of the letter sent to residents telling them that if they asked for a refund of their subscription then they would be unable to rejoin the scheme at a later date.
The Committee’s criticism was accepted and it was clarified that the future shape of the garden waste collection service at the time of the service suspension was not yet clear and JWS and Amey had been reluctant to promise a service that it may not be possible to provide in the future. Notwithstanding this it was acknowledged that the wording of the letters sent to residents could have been improved. It was agreed that information regarding the number of refunds provided to residents would be circulated.
In response to a query about what arrangements were in place to ensure that waste collection requirements of new developments were considered at the planning stage, it was confirmed that ensuring waste collections were taken into account by developers was an ongoing issue. It was agreed that clarification would be provided on what dialogue had taken place with the Council’s planning section in an effort to improve the provision for waste receptacles.
The Committee noted the proposed targets for recycling rates in 2022/23 was lower than it had been in 2019/20 and 2020/21 and it was requested that these be reviewed to ensure that they were sufficiently challenging.
The Committee thanked officers for the update.