Meeting documents

To agree the Minutes of the meeting held on 28 November 2013.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 28 November 2013 were agreed as a correct record and were signed by the Chairman.

Minute 25: Roll out update

There was still concern about the bad language and poor behaviour of a small number of operatives.  Councillor Martin had been assured that appropriate management action was being taken by SERCO

Regarding inaccessible areas, it was confirmed that although it would not be possible to purchase an additional small vehicle, there were other options that were being investigated.

Minute 31: Programme Report & Risk Register

A request was made for specific dates to be agreed by all for when penalties would become due if performance targets were not met.  It was confirmed that the contract allowed for 6 weeks from the start of new service roll outs, allowing 2 cycles to be completed.  It was agreed that a timeline would be produced for the next meeting on 13 February 2014.  It was also requested that more information be provided to the committee about the process and detail of the mechanism for penalties.

Note: the relevant paragraph number and description is indicated under the Minute heading.

Paragraph 3 - Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)

Members considered a report providing an update on the joint waste collection programme and during which the following key points were made:

Contract

This has been signed by all parties although not dated.

Facilities

At Clay Lane; Serco had a requirement to use the workshop but unfortunately the current tenants had a contract to stay until the end of March 2014.  The tenants also would like to remain at the workshop.  Negotiations were ongoing to see whether they could share the facility.  The estates team at Wycombe District Council were also seeking alternatives to resolve this issue.

Bio Waste Infrastructure

Councillors visited the plant at Wallingford. 

IAA

The Inter Authority Agreement (IAA) remained a red risk.  Further progress expected in mid-January 2014.

IT / Contender

It was advised that Contender was about to be updated but the crews didn’t yet have “Street Smart” which was compatible with Contender and so a manual paperwork system was currently being used.  An update was requested for the next meeting.

Customer Services

Call levels had been generally improving but there had still been some difficult weeks.

Communications

Daily tweets and updates continuing to respond quickly to any issues.  The Christmas date changes for collections were going onto the websites of both Councils.  The green waste would be suspended for two weeks over the Christmas period.

Phase 3 Planning

The new service to communal collection areas, schools and public buildings was being planned.  The recycling element of this would begin first and initially, collections would continue to be weekly.  Councillors were concerned that the roll-out should not be planned until the current residential collections had reached steady state.  A review was requested at the next meeting.

Risk Register

The Committee whilst considering the risk register noted that there were still significant risks remaining. It was also agreed to separately rate the individual BCC related risks. A review would be made at the February meeting.

At 11.45 am Tim Guile and Mark Sturgeon (Serco) joined the meeting.

Paragraph 3 - Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)

The Chairman welcomed Tim Guile and Mark Sturgeon, representatives from Serco, to the meeting.  The Committee expressed concern regarding the high level of complaints received from residents and the negative publicity in the local newspapers.  Photographs had been supplied by residents of discarded bins.  The main concerns were:

-   Missed waste collections (repeatedly)

-   Collect and return service (for disabled and elderly)

-   Poor behaviour from collection crews

-   Containers not being put back correctly and lids left open

There was concern that complaints would be taken forward to the Ombudsman if they were not being addressed.

With regard to the problem areas in the Hughenden Valley, Tim Guile advised the Committee that 2 additional supervisors had been engaged to work with these areas and the Regional Support Manager from Milton Keynes.  Unfortunately the additional manpower did not have local knowledge of the area.  It was confirmed that Mark Sturgeon would be working in the district most of the time, and would be on call full time, as they had not been able to recruit a contract manager.  In addition, David Pennycard, Regional Support Manager would be based in the region 3 days per week and would concentrate on the collect and return service in 2014.  The Serco contract in Milton Keynes had been running for over 4 years and he would be able to bring expertise gained to this area.  In addition, Serco were beginning a recruitment programme to fill posts currently undertaken by agency staff.  For the Christmas period, 4 additional trucks had been hired in addition to the 3 extra for the new roll out at a cost of £7k per week.

The committee asked for more information on monitoring so that they could track progress.  It would be useful to warn Councillors in advance if there was a problem in a specific area.  Regarding the Hughenden Valley area, it was enquired whether the rounds were too large for the area.  It was advised that Hughenden was an unusual area but it wasn’t considered to be too much work for the crews.

It was asked when it was expected that a steady state would be achieved for the Wycombe area.  It was advised that 3 months (except for Christmas) would be the end of February and 6 months for the full service to be normalised.  A request was made for an agreed date for performance expectations and it was advised that they would be writing to CDC’s Chief Executive shortly to reply to his letter, including a timetable of dates for when performance issues would be resolved.

Serco were invited to give presentations to Members of both Council’s to inform them of the progress made so far and this was agreed.

Councillors thanked the Serco representatives for the progress that had been made so far.