Agenda item

INFORMATION NOTE OF THE SHARED SERVICE MANAGER – WASTE MANAGEMENT

At the meeting of Cabinet on 9 July 2024 the Council agreed to award the new waste, recycling and street cleansing contract to Veolia UK Ltd. This contract has subsequently been mobilised with the contract beginning on 4 May 2025. Service changes as part of the new contract are due to commence on 4August 2025.  

Councillor Amy Allen, as Executive Member for Environment, presented the information note entitled ‘Update on Mobilisation of Waste Collection and Street Cleansing Contract’, following which Members asked questions.

Audio recording – 44 minutes 0 seconds

Councillor Amy Allen, as Executive Member for Environment, presented the Information Note entitled ‘Update on Mobilisation of Waste Collection’ and advised that:

·             The new waste, recycling and street cleansing contract with Veolia had commenced on 4 May.

·             Mobilisation of the contract had created minimum disruption to residents. 

·             Teams were working behind the scenes on IT integrations.

·             The delivery of the electric vehicles was delayed due to a manufacturer issue which was out of the control of the Council.

·             Over 90% of the new bins had been delivered to North Herts residencies.

·             The first draft of the new proposed collection routes had been received and was being examined by officers.

·             Service leaflets had been finalised and would be sent to print in addition to letters that would be printed to inform residents of the new proposed route changes.

·             They had successfully recruited for the Waste Communications Officer role and an advert had been released for the Waste Contract Officer vacancy.

The following Members asked questions:

·             Councillor Matt Barnes

·             Councillor Elizabeth Dennis

·             Councillor Daniel Wright-Mason

·             Councillor Paul Ward

·             Councillor Claire Winchester

·             Councillor Matt Barnes

In response to questions, the Shared Service Manager – Waste advised that:

·             It was difficult to accurately predict the increase in call volumes that the waste contract change might bring, however, additional calls were anticipated, and extra CSC staff had been provisioned for this.

·             The Council received 4,000 emails in an average 3-month period. However, during the waste service change in 2018, they received 19,000 over 3 months due to the glitches and data issues that it created.

·             However, they knew where they went wrong last time through data analysis and would look at ways to prevent recurrences of issues.

·             Phone lines would be available to those who needed additional support and waste officers could respond to problem areas when needed if they could not be resolved over the phone.

·             The provision of waste vehicles was part of the Veolia contract, therefore the delay to the delivery of the electric vehicles would incur no additional costs for the Council as Veolia would finance an alternative in the meantime.

·             Residents that already required additional waste support services were accounted for and were being contacted regarding the new collection system. They were contacting medical services to make them aware of the service change so they could make spread awareness of the additional services that the Council offered. More residents were coming forward regarding special waste needs and they were being added to their database.

·             The probability for the Material Recycling Facility Contract had reduced to 1 in the Mobilisation Risk Log. It had been procured and was operational as the incumbent supplier was awarded the contract which meant that the transition was seamless. They were in the process of getting the contract signed but no issues were anticipated with the service change.

·             Most outstanding new bin deliveries were due to technical glitches in the system and these would be checked over the next 4 to 5 weeks before being addressed at the end of the cycle as to not interrupt the main mobilisation phase. 

·             They were also waiting to deliver new bins to complex properties that had communal waste areas or properties that had paper and cardboard sacks.

·             There was a list of all the bin deliveries that had occurred to date and Members could report any missed deliveries via the Councillor Portal.

·             Waste service changes should not be underestimated and there would always be risks. It was down to them to cope with the pressure but most of their staff had been through the last service change which had more implications for North Herts than this one.  

·             Their biggest priority was accuracy and it was imperative to check data to ensure that missed collections did not take place in the future. If they got the data evaluation correct, they could focus on supporting residents with the service change rather than resolving day to day issues like missed collections.

·             There were a small number of harder to remove litter bins that required additional steps such as pavement reinstatement. The removal of these would be combined with the installation of dual bins and ballot bins.

·             Concerns had been expressed by residents over the removal of litter bins rather than an increase in litter, however, they would monitor this.

·             Street cleansing schedules were still in the development phase with Veolia.

Councillor Paul Ward advised the Waste team to include both digital and non-digital points of contact where possible as there were a few points of contact listed on the website that were digital only. 

Councillor Amy Allen thanked Councillor Ward for his engagement with residents and for bringing their attention to any problems that residents had faced regarding waste.