Agenda item

To consider any questions submitted by Members of the Council, in accordance with Standing Order 4.8.11 (b).

There were two questions submitted in accordance with Standing Order 4.8.11.

(A)   Home Internet for Officers

Councillor Ralph Muncer to Councillor Ian Albert (Executive Member for Finance and IT).

(B)   Impact of Waste Service Design on Rural Communities

Councillor Ralph Muncer to Councillor Amy Allen (Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management).

Audio recording – 8 minutes 42 seconds

There were two questions submitted in accordance with Standing Order 4.8.11.

(A)   Home Internet for Officers

Councillor Ralph Muncer to Councillor Ian Albert (Executive Member for Finance and IT).

“How much has the Council spent on providing home internet for Officers since 2019?”

Councillor Ian Albert gave a response as follows:

“I assumed that you might be referring to a Freedom of Information request we had from the Taxpayers Alliance last year where we provided a full response in relation to staff working at home payments, we do allow staff that work at home to claim an allowance towards additional costs, but in direct response to your question, we do not pay for Officers home internet bills.”

Councillor Ralph Muncer asked a supplementary question, as follows:

“In response to that Freedom of Information request I am sure that many members of the public will be quite simply shocked that some of their taxpayer’s money is going towards funding home internet for Officers to an extent. So will he commit to withdrawing this scheme for Officers and encouraging Officers who do not have access to suitable home internet to work from home, sorry forgive me to work from the Council Offices of which six million of taxpayer’s money was only recently spent on refurbishing them.”

Councillor Albert responded:

“So the answer to Councillor Muncer is no, working at home is good for the organisation, working from home has many benefits for staff as well as the Council and our residents, increases our resilience and business continuity as we saw during the pandemic. It has not led to any downturn in productivity, we are aware of the cost of living crisis and with limited pay increase, we feel a contribution to employees working from home costs is fair. Indeed 80% of our staff value, indeed highly valued the allowance. The Local Government Association says flexible working is good for retention and morale and gives people the ability to have more balance which is good from a health perspective, but the important thing here is balancing what if the needs of the business and the needs of our staff it’s a win-win we believe we have and that’s where we are, but I know Councillor Muncer is also keen on financial returns and if I haven’t yet managed to convince him about the importance of working home we have also demonstrated some very clear financial benefits from homeworking. For floor two we are receiving annual rental incomes of nearly £50,000 a year, we are also recharging costs of over £50,000 including business energy usage, broadband etc. Altogether this means we have £100,000 worth of returned, more than twice the amount we are paying currently in working at home allowances. Indeed, that money that we get generated may increase even more with potential future letting of floor 3. So once again this administration is showing how we carefully manage our resident’s money and actually carefully work with our staff to actually get the best from them and the best for our residents.”

(B)   Impact of Waste Service Design on Rural Communities

Councillor Ralph Muncer to Councillor Amy Allen (Executive Member for Recycling and Waste Management).

“What steps will be taken to ensure Rural Communities such as Kimpton and Codicote are not disproportionately and adversely impacted by the proposed Service Design Changes pertaining to the new Waste Contract?”

Councillor Amy Allen gave a response as follows:

“It is hard to answer because at this stage, there no decision has been made about what bins if any are going because these decisions will not be made until we have completed the procurement and are moving our attention into mobilising the next contract because nothing is finalised yet. The intention is to do preliminary work behind the scenes with Officers, with Officers liaising with our colleagues in Parks to assess the potential for removal against the set criterion. We haven’t drawn up the criteria yet but as mentioned before we will be using the rap guidance - a link regarding said guidance which includes the information on the bin infrastructure, the right bin in the right place, should be in your Council email box Councillor Muncer as soon as I send it, in case you have not seen it, it is actually quite an interesting read. Once the proposed criteria is ready I will be able to share it more with ward Councillors, based on those criteria the potential for removal list will be shared with Members the proviso  being that if Members collectively want to keep a bin than another will have to go. We will be asking Members to consider the need for the bin. We are also happy to engage with Parish Councillors who will no doubt have the knowledge of need in their Parish. The decision will ultimately need to be made by the District Council. I do appreciate that everyone would like answers now but we simply do not have the capacity to undertake another project until the procurement work is complete. I know this is frustrating. Regarding bulky waste collections, these are changes that bring us in line with other Councils, this seems to work for them and we have worked extensively with bidders and they have come back with ways to help counteract the impacts of the rampant inflation that has affected the UK and caused the price of this contract to have sored beyond expectations. I do hope that answers your question and I will forward the pdf to you.”

Councillor Ralph Muncer asked a supplementary question, as follows:

“Fly tipping is an issue which disproportionately impacts rural communities within our District, now in April of last year I questioned the Executive Member on the impact of the cut to residual waste collections on fly tipping across the district and I was told by her and I quote it is quite unlikely we will see an increase in fly tipping, despite that being contrary to what Officers had written in their report so the question I have for the Executive Member we are now in January 2023, we are now seeing a cut to residents recycling collection we are going to be seeing a cut to the bulky waste collection services does she still agree with her comments in April 2023 that is quite unlikely we will see an increase in fly tipping or would she like to reassess her comments.”

Councillor Amy Allen responded:

“Thank you for the invitation to reassess, so I know that there is going to be some adjustments and changes and I felt personally that regards to purple bin waste would not become a fly tipping issue, I would like to actually respond to the point about the recycling, the recycling is not actually being cut, it is going to be spread across two bins instead of one, and because of the volume and the changes that are being made there is actually going to be overall for a majority of households there are going to have more space for their recycling overall even with each bin being collected three weekly. This was actually done as a response to as well because of the confusion that seemed to be likely to be caused from it being a three weekly purple, a two weekly recycling etc etc. Now you are putting a bin out every week and you just need to remember which time to put out your garden waste, so because you are putting a bin out every week, it is less likely you are going to miss it, it is less likely you are going to have these issues and overall there is actually going to be more space for the recycling because of having a whole extra bin to put all your papers and cardboard into. Again none of these details are completely 100% finalised because we are still waiting to finish the procurement process. I do hope that has answered your question in some way Councillor Muncer.”