Issue - meetings

Appendix 1 to the report is exempt from publication as it contains commercially confidential information (exempt under paragraph 3, Part 1, Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended)).

The Cabinet Member for Public Realm and Climate Change reported on the East London Waste Authority (ELWA) Outline Business Case (OBC), which set out proposals relating to the preferred serviced delivery model for the future management of waste when ELWA’s current 25-year Integrated Waste Management Strategy (IWMS) Contract expired in December 2027.

The Cabinet Member explained that whilst the four constituent Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham and Redbridge were responsible for the collection of waste within their respective boundaries, ELWA had been established in 1985 as the statutory waste disposal authority for the four Boroughs. 

By Minute 72 (18 January 2022), the Cabinet had endorsed ELWA’s Joint Resources and Waste Strategy 2027-2057, developed jointly by ELWA and the four constituent Boroughs, which set out the direction of travel for the future management of waste across the four constituent Boroughs.  The key objectives within that strategy were reducing future waste arisings, increasing recycling rates, reducing carbon impact, maximising opportunities for local regeneration, increasing social value and managing waste in the most economically efficient way possible.  The OBC set out a detailed analysis of the options considered and proposed procurement plan to deliver those objectives.  The Cabinet Member advised that the preferred option (Option 2) would mean that the current pre-treatment of residual (black bag) waste at ELWA’s mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facilities at Jenkins Lane and Frog Island would cease and, instead, those facilities would be converted into waste reception facilities where waste delivered by the constituent Councils would be bulked and then transported elsewhere to be treated by merchant contractors.  The report also set out proposals in respect of the future lease arrangements for the Council’s Frizlands Lane Reuse and Recycling Centre (RRC) to enable ELWA and the incumbent contractor(s) to continue to use the site under the new arrangements.

Cabinet Members expressed the view that they would prefer that the responsibility for waste disposal services was at a local level, in order for the Council to be able to determine the best arrangements for Barking and Dagenham residents.  However, in acknowledging that ELWA was the statutory waste disposal authority for the area, the consensus was that Option 2 set out in the OBC represented the best way forward.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Agree to support the East London Waste Authority’s (ELWA) Outline Business Case (OBC) at Appendix 1 to the report;

(ii)  Agree in principle to the Frizlands Lane RRC being made available as a site to the new contractor by way of a property agreement, subject to a future report relating to relevant property arrangements as required; and

(iii)  Note the programme of work that ELWA intended to undertake in relation to the expiry and demobilisation of the current IWMS Contract, which shall include ELWA carrying out any required site inspections on behalf of the Council in relation to the Frizlands Lane RRC.