The Chairman to lead a discussion on experiences regarding the new waste contract the Minute of which to be referred to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting due to be held on 18 September 2018.
Decision:
RECOMMENDED TO THE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE: That the comments made by the Southern Rural Committee, as noted above, be considered when discussing the new waste contract at the meeting due to be held on 18 September 2018.
REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Southern Rural Committee to inform the Overview and Scrutiny Committee of issues in the Southern Rural area regarding the new waste contract.
Minutes:
Audio recording – Start of Item – 53 minutes 54 seconds
The Chairman led a discussion regarding the new Waste Contract.
She advised that the comments of this Committee would be forwarded to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting due to be held on 18 September 2018 at which the Waste Contract would be discussed.
Members discussed the recent experiences of Southern Rural residents regarding the operation of the Waste Contract and made the following observations:
• The “collect and return service”, for those vulnerable people unable to place their bins out for collection, which had worked under the previous contract, was not now happening. This meant that vulnerable people were having difficulty getting their bins collected.
• The same properties are experiencing problems week on week with the garden waste and food caddy services.
• The contractors are not collecting bins from properties in small closes, even when the residents leave the bins at the previously agreed collection point. The residents in these areas only get the bins collected if they walk them to the main road.
• Outlying houses were being regularly missed.
• Residents living in narrow roads or roads with tight turning spaces are not having their bins collected although they had been collected under the previous contract. Officers had been consulted and advised that smaller lorries should be sent to collect bins from these properties.
• Members were pleased that the food caddy service had been introduced. However, food caddy collection was a problem. The contract operatives had advised that they used small vehicles to collect this waste, which meant they had to unload in Bunting ford and return to continue the round. This meant that they could run out of time to complete a round.
• It was the recyclables and brown bins that caused the most problems.
• New residents, particularly those in new houses and those requiring replacements are not receiving bins, despite requesting them.
• Residents who have not taken up the garden waste service have not had their bins collected, despite requesting removal.
• Urbaser seemed to have a high turnover of agency staff resulting in a lack of knowledge of the rounds.
• Whole roads are missed.
• Residents who have not paid for the garden waste collection are getting their bins collected resulting in those who have paid being very dissatisfied.
• Contacting Urbaser by phone remains a major problem with residents and Councillors waiting 30 – 40 minutes for the phone to be answered.
• Members would like data about how many calls are received by Urbaser, the average length of time spent waiting for calls to be answered, the average length of a call and how many calls are abandoned.
• Paid for bulky waste collections have been collected late.
• Waste crews are tipping paper waste into the recycling when collecting causing resident s to question why they are separating their waste. Members queried how much paper was removed from the general recycling as a result.
RECOMMENDED TO THE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE: That the comments made by the Southern Rural Committee, as noted above, be considered when discussing the new waste contract at the meeting due to be held on 18 September 2018.
REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Southern Rural Committee to inform the Overview and Scrutiny Committee of issues in the Southern Rural area regarding the new waste contract.