Agenda item

To receive an Information Note entitled Mobilisation of Waste, Recycling and Street Cleansing Contract.

 

Some information will be clarified at the meeting.

RESOLVED:

 

(1)       That a Task and Finish type review of the waste contract be undertaken shortly following the publication of the SIAS review of the service;

 

(2)       That the following issues be referred to the Task and Finish review mentioned in (1) above:

(i)         Why a decision was made to mobilise the contract in an unrealistic timescale;

(ii)        Why, when there was such a short mobilisation period, was a decision made to make major changes to the service in what were already challenging circumstances, rather than delay the implementation of changes to the service for one year;

(iii)       Why sufficient staff resources were not made available prior to implementation of the contract;

(iv)      What happened when high volumes of calls were received in terms of systems and staff;

(v)       Consider the differences between area where the service worked well and those where the service was poor.

 

(3)       That the Service Manager- Waste be requested to publish details of the statistics regarding reports of missed bins and calls made regarding this and communicate the details publicly;

 

(4)       That the Service Manager Waste be requested to develop a communication strategy that includes Members that ensures they are kept updated on a regular basis and enables them to bring issues to the attention of Urbaser and/or the waste team;

 

(5)       That, subject to investigations into GDPR requirements, a list of the “hotspots” of missed bin collections be circulated to Ward Councillors.

 

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET:

 

(1)       That all efforts are made to ensure that staff resources within NHDC are sufficient to meet the needs of the service;

 

(2)       That a plan demonstrating the actions to be taken in order to bring the Waste and Recycling Service to a “business as usual” status be published and communicated publicly;

 

(3)       That Cabinet confirm that a contingency plan detailing what will happen should the current contract continue to underperform is in place;

 

(4)       That the short term issues of staffing and systems to address the current high levels of calls to report missed bins be considered;

 

REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to consider the information note entitled Mobilisation of Waste, Recycling and Street Cleansing Contract and make relevant resolutions and recommendations to Cabinet.

Audio recording – Session 1 - 12 minutes 52 seconds

 

The Chairman advised that the item would be considered in the following order:

1.         Referral from Hitchin Committee;

2.         Referral from Southern Rural Committee;

3.         Presentation of the Information Note;

4.         Debate and Questions.

 

1.         Referral from Hitchin Committee

 

The Chairman of Hitchin Committee presented the following referral from that Committee, made at its meeting held on 11 September 2018, in respect of The New Waste Contract.

 

 “Members discussed the recent experiences of Hitchin residents regarding the operation of the Waste Contract and made the following observations:

 

·                There were some responsibilities for emptying litter bins that seemed to sit with John O’Connor, whilst some responsibilities wee with Urbaser these should be co-ordinated;

·                Monitoring of waste bins should happen at least every 28 days, what monitoring was actually taking place?

·                Public waste bins in well used places such as King George V playing fields were often overflowing. It was important to ensure sufficient provision of waste bins in these areas;

·                Why was the provision of large bins to the Town Centre events not included in the contract;

·                There are no signs of improvement in the residential waste collection;

·                There are a number of specific issues as well as general issues such as which roads should have their bins collected, that seem to have fallen though the cracks between the outgoing contract and the new contract;

·                Trust in the waste system is at an all time low;

·                There were hotspots that continually experience problems;

·                Residents still raised issues about the length time it was taking to get though on the phones in order to repot problems such as missed bins;

·                One Member sought assurance that the data regarding those who had paid for the garden waste collection met all of the requirements of GDPR.

 

RECOMMENDED TO THE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE: That the comments made by the Hitchin Committee, as noted above, be considered when discussing the new waste contract at the meeting due to be held on 18 September 2018.”

 

1.         Referral from Southern Rural Committee

 

The Chairman of the Southern Rural Committee presented the following referral from that Committee, made at its meeting held on 13 September 2018, in respect of Experiences Regarding the New Waste Contract.

 

“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.”

 

2.         Presentation of the Information Note

 

The Service Manager – Waste and Recycling made a PowerPoint presentation regarding the information note entitled Mobilisation of Waste, Recycling and Street Cleansing Contract.

 

She presented details of:

·                The background to the contract.

·                The Waste Team;

·                The actions taken regarding missed bin complaints;

·                The performance monitoring regime;

·                Future expected audits and scrutiny of the contract and service.

 

The following Members commented and asked questions:

 

·                Councillor Ian Albert;

·                Councillor Steve Jarvis.

 

Mr Mark Piggott, Urbaser, gave a PowerPoint presentation regarding the new waste contract.

 

Mr Piggott presented details of:

 

·                The context;

·                The issues encountered;

·                What was being done to resolve the issues.

 

Mr Piggott apologised for the problems that had been encountered and stated that Urbaser would do everything they could to resolve the issues.

 

3.         Debate and Questions

 

The Chairman advised that she was aware that there were likely to be some issues raised by members, for example employment matters, which would need to be discussed in Part 2.

 

She asked Officers to indicate whether their answer to an issue would include Part 2 information and suggested that all of those points be collected for discussion once all Part 1 issues had been debated.

 

The Chairman advised that she would like to keep as much debate as possible in Part 1 for the benefit of the public in attendance.

 

The Chairman announced a brief adjournment to enable Members to consider the information contained in the presentations.

 

Audio recording – Session 2 – 7 seconds

 

There was a lengthy session of questions and a thorough debate in which the following Members took part:

 

·                Councillor Kate Aspinwall;

·                Councillor Steve Jarvis;

·                Councillor Sam Collins;

·                Councillor Helen Oliver;

·                Councillor Elizabeth-Dennis – Harburg;

·                Councillor Ian Albert;

·                Councillor Michael Muir;

·                Councillor Janine Paterson;

·                Councillor Steve Deakin – Davies;

·                Councillor Ian Moody;

·                Councillor Martin Stears – Handscomb.

 

The following responded to the above questions:

 

·                The Manager - Waste and Recycling;

·                Mr Mark Piggott, Urbaser;

·                Service Director – Resources;

·                Deputy Chief Executive;

·                Mr Jose Ramon Sanchez, Urbaser.

 

 it was proposed, seconded and:

 

RESOLVED:

 

(1)       That a Task and Finish type review of the waste contract be undertaken shortly following the publication of the SIAS review of the service;

 

(2)       That the following issues be referred to the Task and Finish review mentioned in (1) above:

(i)         Why a decision was made to mobilise the contract in an unrealistic timescale;

(ii)        Why, when there was such a short mobilisation period, was a decision made to make major changes to the service in what were already challenging circumstances, rather than delay the implementation of changes to the service for one year;

(iii)       Why sufficient staff resources were not made available prior to implementation of the contract;

(iv)      What happened when high volumes of calls were received in terms of systems and staff;

(v)       Consider the differences between area where the service worked well and those where the service was poor.

 

(3)       That the Service Manager- Waste be requested to publish details of the statistics regarding reports of missed bins and calls made regarding this and communicate the details publicly;

 

(4)       That the Service Manager Waste be requested to develop a communication strategy that includes Members that ensures they are kept updated on a regular basis and enables them to bring issues to the attention of Urbaser and/or the waste team;

 

(5)       That, subject to investigations into GDPR requirements, a list of the “hotspots” of missed bin collections be circulated to Ward Councillors.

 

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET:

 

(1)       That all efforts are made to ensure that staff resources within NHDC are sufficient to meet the needs of the service;

 

(2)       That a plan demonstrating the actions to be taken in order to bring the Waste and Recycling Service to a “business as usual” status be published and communicated publicly;

 

(3)       That Cabinet confirm that a contingency plan detailing what will happen should the current contract continue to underperform is in place;

 

(4)       That the short term issues of staffing and systems to address the current high levels of calls to report missed bins be considered;

 

REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to consider the information note entitled Mobilisation of Waste, Recycling and Street Cleansing Contract and make relevant resolutions and recommendations to Cabinet.