To receive petitions, comments and questions from the public.
Decision:
Councillor Fiona Hill
Councillor Hill gave a verbal presentation regarding the proposal for a shared service for waste and street cleansing.
The Chairman thanked Councillor Hill for her presentation.
Dr Carol Stanier
Dr Carol Stanier gave a verbal presentation regarding the proposal for a shared service for waste and street cleansing.
The Chairman thanked Dr Stanier for her presentation.
Minutes:
Councillor Fiona Hill
Councillor Hill advised that, although Members were discussing the whole proposal for a shared service for waste and street cleansing, her presentation was directly related to recommendation 2.3 regarding a weekly food collection and a charged garden waste collection service from May 2018. This was assumed to be £40 per year and she had a number of concerns regarding this proposal.
She queried whether, when comparing the potential impacts with Councils that had already introduced charges, comparisons had been undertaken with any similar authorities and whether there had there been any impact on fly tipping, particularly as North Herts was a very rural area.
If residents chose to make alternative arrangements for the disposal of green waste, would this impact on NHDC recycling rates, which were currently well above average and would this increase waste going to landfill.
She expressed concern regarding those residents who would like to recycle garden waste, but were suffering from genuine financial hardship and had no access to recycling centres.
Certain assumptions had been made when calculating efficiencies and she queried whether the calculations had included whether the same vehicle would be used to collect food and garden waste or if separate vehicles were used.
Some authorities had taken the decision to reduce garden waste collections in winter months, which she assumed had been investigated.
Councillor Hill appreciated that the Council needed to balance finances in a difficult climate and that garden waste collection was not statutory however, any removal or change of any existing service was viewed as a retrograde step and residents would be understandably concerned.
Communication regarding the proposals had not been entirely clear during the consultation and there had been a great deal of inaccurate information circulating, particularly on social media which had caused confusion and worry for many residents.
Councillor Hill asked Members to seriously consider the points she had made when considering their decision.
The Chairman thanked Councillor Hill for her presentation.
Dr Carol Stanier
Dr Stanier informed Members that she was the Chair of Royston Liberal Democrats branch and a member of North Herts Liberal Democrats group and that she wished to address the proposed garden waste removal charges.
The Council’s consultation was made during holiday period when many people were away or otherwise distracted from news and current events. In Royston in August she was surprised that people were still saying they had heard nothing about the subject, even though there had been news stories and believed that many more people may have responded if the consultation had taken place at another time or been more widely publicised.
Out of the around 5,000 responses the consultation received from North Herts and 2500 from East Herts, 85 percent opposed the introduction of charges and only 26 percent said that they would be likely to use the service if they had to pay for it. This was a very large percentage of respondents who were against the proposal and ignoring these voices would be undemocratic.
Furthermore, North Herts Liberal Democrats ran a petition against the proposed charges and the outcome was that approximately 90 percent of those spoken to signed the petition straightaway with further signatures being gathered online as a result of these sessions. A copy of this petition, containing 1,081 signatures, mostly from those that did not respond to the consultation, had been sent to all Cabinet Members.
All of these responses demonstrated a great strength of feeling against the proposal to charge for garden waste removal and it was hoped that Cabinet would bear in mind the sheer weight of numbers objecting to this proposal when they made their decision.
She expressed concern for those who would find it difficult to get to a household waste recycling centre, primarily the elderly, disabled, and those who do not drive for other reasons. The proposed charge would discriminate unfairly against those who may need the service most.
Assisted collections were mentioned in the Equality Impact Assessment, but presumably the recipients would still need to pay for collection and this would not be applicable to non drivers who were able bodied. She questioned how many Councillors had attempted to take a sack full of brambles to the tip on the bus and was concerned that the council did not appear to have considered exemptions or reductions for these groups of people.
Dr Stanier concluded by stating that householders had a service that they paid for with their council tax which it was proposed be removed and then an extra charge be introduced to have that service back, with no mention of a corresponding reduction in council tax.
She asked Members to listen to residents’ feedback and not implement a charge to collect garden waste.
In response to a question Dr Stanier advised that she was not certain as to whether a notification had been delivered to every household in North Hertfordshire regarding the consultation, but even if it had happened, it could easily have been ignored by those who had received a lot of post whilst on holiday.
The Chairman thanked Dr Stanier for her presentation.