Agenda item

To receive an officer update presentation on the roll-out of the Council’s new waste and recycling service.

The Panel received a presentation giving an update on progress with the roll out of the new Waste Service, including lessons learned from phase 1, to inform phases 2 and 3.

The slides from the Presentation are attached to these minutes as Appendix 2.

It covered the following areas:

• Background (legal and the NFDC approval timeline),
• Waste Programme and projects,
• Transformation and Change,
• Key Issues,
• Learnings/Actions for Phases 2 & 3,
• New Waste Service Timeline,
• Decision Timeline.

Main learnings from phase 1 included the need to improve methods and quality of address data for container deliveries, improved mechanisms for missed collections, new arrangements for collecting food waste containers (behind the gates and investigation of lockable containers), and enhanced website and customer and member communications.  Any suggested improvements regarding Member communications going forward are welcome.

The presentation concluded that the project had dealt with huge visible and non-visible change, tangible benefits were already being seen with food waste tonnages (a recycling rate from Q1 was reported of 40.2% compared with a historical level of around 35%), health and safety and litter reduction.  Household waste was down 6% on the same period. 130 tonnes of food waste had been collected in the current quarter.

There were challenging aspects to the project but improvement plans were in place to meet phase 2, which involved half the number of households of phase 1.  Strong governance and oversight measures were in place.

Members highlighted concerns of Brockenhurst residents, though were pleased with progress and actions being taken, including the further planned meeting between officers and residents.  Officers explained that a range of actions were being implemented.  Resetting of narrow access rounds was progressing well and supervisor resource had been improved.  Recruitment challenges were being addressed and market supplements offered to attract drivers.

It was explained that new routing technology in waste collection vehicle cabs generated real time live reporting from crews to the Customer Service team, and the customer portal on the Council’s website.  This allowed people to see the progress of local collections and to contact the Council about missed collections.  It was acknowledged that not everyone chose or was able to use the Council’s website.

As part of the switch to this new technology, a review of routes had been undertaken, as this had not been done for some time, in part pending guidance and clarity from the Government on the terms of the waste arrangements.  The routes had to be changed to take account of the change to wheelie bin collections and make this as efficient as possible.  Speed and accuracy of collections are improving all the time.

A request was made that all containers be kept behind gates because of animal interaction with waste.  In response it was explained that because of the significant resource implications of this, an evidenced business case would be needed, and further work was required on whether this was the optimum overall solution. Consideration of any policy change would be reported on in due course.

In response to a point concerning the Pannage letter coverage being incomplete, it was explained that this letter was being hand delivered to 2200 households based on a new dataset.  It was hoped all affected households would be contacted and would be completed within the next day, but officers would welcome any information where it was thought households may have been missed.

It was confirmed that phases 2 and 3 would continue as originally timetabled.

Officers explained that contract management on bin distribution had been tightened up and improved but feedback on this was welcomed.

In response to a question, it was reported there had been no manual handling incidents or injuries since the introduction of the new arrangements, underlining one of the positive benefits for staff involved.

In response to a question, officers confirmed that the Hythe and Dibden area are expected to receive waste sacks in the coming weeks.  Officers also undertook to investigate problems in phase 3 areas and report back to the member who raised it. 

Safety surveys were being undertaken with a view to avoiding the need for staff to cross a cattle grid on foot to collect waste, and to ascertain the safest place to collect from and as well as improved messaging for the 90 properties concerned.

Members acknowledged the unique challenges of operating a waste collection service in a rural area like the New Forest, with roaming animals and the associated issues.

In answer to a question, officers confirmed that the Government requirement on the timescale for the introduction of food waste collections was that all households must have the new arrangements in place by the end of March 2026.

Officers confirmed the recent decision made by Cabinet, which was that officers continued to work on a business case to extend the behind the gate policy beyond Pannage, and that an in-principle agreement to this longer term policy change was given, with the final decision being subject to a business case.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.