Agenda and minutes

We have appointed Councillor McKenzie as Chair for the ensuing municipal year.

Councillors Kelly, Tebbutt, Murphy and Sheekey abstained from voting.

We have appointed Councillor Kelly as Vice Chair for the ensuing municipal year.

None.

We have agreed the minutes of our meeting held on 7 April 2008.

We have received the Office Manager’s report and welcomed Councillor Mark Aaron to the Authority as representative for London Borough of Redbridge.  Noted the Authority membership as:

Barking & Dagenham: Cllr Milton McKenzie and Cllr Mrs Pat Twomey

Havering: Cllr Steven Kelly and Cllr Barry Tebbutt

Newham: Cllr Pat Sheekey and Cllr Patrick Murphy

Redbridge: Cllr Alan Weinberg and Cllr Mark Aaron

The Chair took this opportunity to welcome Mark Ash to the post of Assistant Executive Director at ELWA.

Having considered a report from the Office Manager on issues relating to ELWA’s directorship on ELWA Limited, we have:-

(i)  appointed Councillor Weinberg as ELWA’s ‘A’ Director on the ELWA Limited Board for the 2008/9 municipal year;

(ii)  authorised the ‘A’ Director to act as ELWA’s representative at the Annual General Meeting of ELWA Ltd;

(iii)  agreed that such appointment to take effect following prior consultation with the “B” shareholder;

(iv)  authorised the Chair to nominate an alternative ‘A’ Director should the need arise.

Councillors Kelly, Tebbutt, Murphy and Sheekey abstained from voting.

We have noted the agreed programme of meetings and discussed the question of visiting the key facilities and sites prior to our next meeting (21.07.08).  We have agreed that we would like to visit the sites but have been unable to arrange a suitable time for all to attend.  We have decided that Members will make their own ad hoc visits to the sites in conjunction with their Director accompanied by a representative of the ELWA team.  We have instructed Officers to advise the Contractor of our decision. 

Noted the report containing an analysis of expenditure, income and contingency and reserves and note that this is very much in line with budget monitoring reports previously received.

We have received the Finance Director’s Report together with the draft Code of Corporate Governance and draft Annual Governance Statement.  We have noted the New Corporate Governance Framework for Local Government and considered and agreed the new local code of Corporate Governance.  In addition we have considered and approved the draft Annual Governance Statement for the financial year ended 31 March 2008.

We have noted that the Action plan has highlighted areas for further consideration as the development of best practice in connection with contract monitoring and risk assessment/management and business continuity arrangements.  Items for future review were arrangements for engaging with the public and management performance.

In respect of the last item, the Chair asked Members to be more proactive in their engagement as ELWA representatives.

We have received the Finance Director's report advising on changes in production and publication and note that the Accounts reflect the variances mentioned in the Outturn Report.  We have approved the 2007/08 Draft Statement of Accounts.

Councillor Tebbutt refrained from comment on this item.

We have received and discussed the Contract Manager’s report and the Assistant Executive Director’s commentary on the Best Value Performance Statistics for 2007/08.  We have discussed THE statistics and approved publication of the performance table on the ELWA website and authorised the Executive Director to approve the final version of the table for publication. 

We have noted the Assistant Executive Director’s report and appendices on Contract Performance for the period April 2007 to March 2008.  We have received commentary on tonnage data and contract payments, operations at the Reuse & Recycling Centres, commissioning of Jenkins Lane Bio-Mrf, Frog Island operations, contamination difficulties experienced with regard to Opti-bags.and biodegradability testing. 

Noted that the contract recycling rate had failed to meet target, despite an increase on the previous year’s figure.  The Contractor suffered a loss in recycling supplements as a consequence.  Noted diversion from landfill had outperformed contracted targets and that Defra had put a notional value of £5 for accounting purposes on LATS allowances.

Members again raised their disquiet at the poor performance.  In addition, it was agreed that a report explaining the different targets applying to the Boroughs and the Contractor would be circulated.

Received the Finance Director’s report on the Authority’s internal audit systems and procedures and his opinion that the overall systems are sound and that the core financial systems continue to operate effectively.  He reported that more work needed to be done in respect of contract monitoring and compliance as well as some rather high level works on controls and corporate governance and financial management. 

We have agreed the audit coverage as outlined for 2007/08 and future years.

We have noted the under spend of £255,000 against estimated budget for the month of April.  The Finance Director drew our attention to the fact that the main variation related to lower than expected payments to Shanks.east London because of lower tonnages of waste for disposal.

Received and noted the Assistant Executive Director’s report and appendices.  We have received commentary on tonnage data, site operations, contract monitoring, recycling performance and diversion from landfill. 

Issues to note were that that the contractor had failed to meet targets for the first month of the first quarter as a result of lower tonnage and lower recycling performance.  Recycling performance had been adversely affected by lower than expected green waste and contamination of orange bags.  He reported that Shanks were trying to improve performance by revised working arrangements and securing new outlets for particular waste types.  Diversion from landfill reached 52.3%.

Members raised concerns that the Boroughs were introducing new recycling schemes but the performance figures were not increasing.

We have resolved to exclude the public and press from the remainder of the meeting by reason of the nature of the business transacted included the detailed business affairs of third parties which are exempt from publication by virtue of paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 as amended.)

We have received the Executive Director’s report and tabled documents. We have discussed at length and with some concern about the orange bag recycling performance and note that future reports on further trials and research into recycling performance will be provided.

We have agreed that it would be beneficial for Members to meet informally to discuss borough initiatives and trials and to share ideas.

(Councillor Weinberg declared a prejudicial interest in this item and left the meeting.)

The remaining Members have received the joint report of the Executive Director, Legal Adviser and External Legal Adviser, together with the appendix.  We have noted and discussed the options and advice provided by the external legal adviser and thanked him for attending the meeting.  We have agreed to defer consideration of the strategic way forward until the next meeting when the first quarter performance for 2008/09 will be reported.

We have asked officers to request a copy of the Contractor’s presentation on Contract Performance for the first quarter and send it to us at least a week before our meeting on 21st July 2008.

We have noted the Executive Director’s report, appendix and commentary on progress and future steps.  We have agreed to receive a future report on further negotiations and further information about the achievement of value for money from these sites. 

We have agreed to hold a short workshop on the potential for Refinancing the IWMS Contract after our meeting in September and have asked officers to make the necessary arrangements.