Meeting documents

The Committee considered a report providing an overview of the joint waste service for the period from July to September 2018. This included the budget, key targets, formal complaints and key risks. During the discussion the following key points were made:-

·       The number of assisted collections had reduced by 481 due to a review carried out by officers. For SBDC this number was reduced by 107.

·       Clinical collections would be reviewed next year.

·       Number of chargeable garden waste subscriptions was 40.5% for CDC and 30% for SBDC which was very promising.

·       All vacant posts in the Waste Admin Team had now been filled.

·       The Waste Team have targeted Christmas roadshows to promote recycling and waste reduction. They had attended a successful roadshow at Chesham and were attending a Santa Fun Run at Marlow on 6 December (they would use textile bags to recycle Santa suits) and had received a compliment from the President of the Rotary Club. At another event organised with Grundon they had recycled 4,500 paper cups and 1,500 hot chocolate cups. On 12 December 2018 they were attending an event at Beaconsfield.

·       Calendars for all three districts have been delivered with inserts which had been well received by residents.

·       SBDC’s paper box scheme was being rejuvenated.

·       Litter bins had been rationalised in Wycombe Town Centre and replaced with smarter lidded bins with larger capacity to improve the street scene. A Bin it for Good campaign was being launched.

·       In terms of raising money for charity by weighing waste the following charities have been chosen:-

-        High Wycombe - South Bucks Hospice and Wycombe Homeless

-        Chesham - Bucks Vision, PACT, Pepper Foundation

-        Beaconsfield - Greenfingers, Bucks Dementia Care Fund

·     In terms of the budget for CDC/WDC there had been an underspend on salaries due to vacancies and the green waste subscriptions and sale of waste bins and boxes were currently above budget. For SBDC there had also been an underspend on salaries and higher demand than budgeted for replacement and refurbished bins.

·     With the headline performance figures the dry summer reduced the garden waste tonnages. With missed collections some of the figures were to be confirmed because Serco were adjusting the method of presenting performance figures to be consistent with the reporting for other Authorities and information would be provided in the next report. There was a higher figure for missed containers in SBDC but this was in the summer months when a number of staff were on holiday and replaced by less experienced agency staff. In terms of missed assisted collections the officer reported that the targets needed to be adjusted to be more realistic for SBDC. With the new contract they would need to look at how performance should be measured to provide a good comparison.

·     Customer Contact Statistics - wait time messages had been introduced on phone lines giving the caller an option to decide whether to wait or call again and calls were recorded. There was a spike over the summer. The Director of Services, CDC/SBDC asked whether the new wait time messages had increased the number of abandoned calls and the Waste Services Manager reported that these figures would be reported in the next quarter with an explanation given for any increases.

·     There were more compliments than complaints.

·     In terms of health and safety a RIDDOR accident was reported relating to a Serco loader twisting their ankle slipping down set stairs and there were also 4 near misses, which related to tree branches, which had been reported to Transport for Bucks. A Member queried whether any overhanging branches related to residential properties and whether residents were notified of any hazards and this was confirmed.

·     Appendix 1 presented the Assisted Collection Month Summary Report, which showed the effectiveness of the project in reducing missed assisted collections. Performance had improved with supervisor checks and this review had also had a positive effect on other areas such as general missed collections, bulk missed collections and whole street misses.

·     Two new risks had been added with regard to unitary status (impact on procurement and contracting arrangements which could limit the market interest) and Brexit (potential impact on markets for recyclables resulting in higher gate fees and affecting reprocessing capacity). Communications could be sent out to residents to ensure that the quality of materials collected was high. Reference was made to a BBC news article regarding a family collecting plastics to see how much they could collect but this could be misleading in terms of the types of materials collected e.g. plastic film.