Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence was received from Councillor I Corbett, Councillor M Dunn and Councillor P Murphy.

The minutes were noted and agreed.  There were no matters arising.

The Authority’s External Auditors will be attending for this item.

We noted the Finance Director’s report attaching the Statement of The Accounts for 2008/09 and The Auditor’s Report. The External Auditor was planning to provide an unqualified opinion and certificate, without any major issues being raised in respect of the review and audit of the Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2009.  In addition, it outlined that there was a favourable variance in terms of expenditure compared to the Revised Budget for 2008/09 resulting primarily from lower contract payments to the Contractor and lower tonne mileage and recycling initiatives claims.  The General Fund Balance had increased to just over £10m.

The Chair welcomed the External Auditor to the meeting.  The External Auditor confirmed that that there were no matters of substance on which to report and that there were no recommendations to consider.  An unqualified opinion certificate would be provided.  He extended his gratitude to the people in the Finance Department and to Officers for making this a smooth first year of audit.

We offered our thanks to the Auditor for the work undertaken on the accounts and for presenting his report.  The Auditor attended for this item only.

We have noted the Finance Director’s report and a small underspend against profiled budget, for the first five months of the year.  The Finance Director explained that the significant variations related to the lower than expected payment to the Contractor because of lower tonnages of waste for disposal to which other reports referred.

He also reported that commercial waste income was down and that the current investment climate had generated less investment income than expected.

We have questioned and received clarification from the Executive Director on the monitoring and enforcement of commercial waste collections by The Boroughs and agreed that we should revisit this subject early next year.

The Finance Director has asked that we consider cost savings for the future.

We have received and noted the Assistant Executive Director’s report and appendices stating that separate orange bag collections, green waste and BioMRF composting volumes had had generated above contract level recycling performance at 24.6%, recyclate markets had been stable and that a few minor operational issues had been raised with the Contractor.  We have discussed the fact that stone and glass from the BioMRF at Frog Island are being sent to landfill because of poor quality and note that Officers were applying pressure for a resolution to the problem.  We have considered the viability of an alternative use for this material and to receiving a briefing paper.  We understand that an Improvements Programme had been requested from the Contractor and was still awaited.  We have asked Officers to put pressure on the Contractor.

We have also received commentary on Bring Site monitoring by London Remade, monitoring of the Reuse & Recycling Centres by ELWA and Borough Officers and on the output from Jenkins Lane Survival Bag Materials Recycling Facility.

With regard to the appendices, we have asked for these to be adjusted in future to incorporate a more legible font size.

We have received and noted the Assistant Executive Director’s report and again requested that the appendices be adjusted to show a more legible font size. 

In commentary he added that the LB Havering and the LB Newham were within their NI191 local target for the amount of residual waste collected.  Three boroughs had also exceeded their agreed NI192 targets for the recycling and composting of waste but one remained below target.  ELWA’s diversion from landfill rate at 60% had well exceeded its target.

With regard to the Landfill Allowances Trading Scheme (LATS), we have been advised that there has been no opportunity for ELWA to trade the 210,800 LATS surplus generated this year.

Noted.

At the request of the Chair, we have agreed to take the Managing Director’s report and appendix on the open Agenda. 

We have received commentary and been asked to consider and make decisions in connection with the future governance and management of the Authority.  The Managing Director has advised us of the staffing, legal and financial implications.

With regard to the recommendations, we have specifically agreed to make changes to the Constitution as follows:

1.  a)  that the Chair and Vice Chair should be from different boroughs;

b)  the appointment of Chair and Vice Chair should be for a period of two years and staggered to ensure that both do not change at the same time in future; and

c)  the appointments are generally by rotation with a provisional sequence to be proposed in the review of the Constitution.

2.  we have considered the appointment of the “A” director in respect of ELWA Limited and agreed that this appointment should operate in a similar way to the above.

3.  that the role of the interim Managing Director should continue as at present for the time being but that a full-time Managing Director in the employ of the Authority should be established.

4.  regularise the position such that the Environment Directors from each of Constituent Councils become members of the ELWA Management Board without specific operational or functional roles and that the Board members are expected to chair and lead working groups and support the strategic activities of the Authority, with the Managing Director continuing to chair the Board.  The Authority’s Finance Director’s appointment will continue as presently operated under the terms of Section 151 of the Local Government Act 1972.

The Managing Director has agreed to prepare further report in order for us to agree specific salary and consider personal issues.  He will also write to the Boroughs’ Chief Executives explaining what ELWA is minded to do in respect of the ELWA Management Board.  There was a need to strengthen the policy and strategy role within the organisation at the estimated cost of £55,000, and this was agreed.

We have agreed to delegate authority to the Managing Director in order for him to take steps with the Monitoring Officer to progress these arrangements and prepare appropriate job description(s) for consideration and changes to the Constitution.

We have agreed to receive further reports with a view to amending the constitution for the forthcoming Municipal Year including the future management structure.

We have resolved to exclude the public and press from the remainder of the meeting by reason of the nature of the business to be discussed which included information exempt from publication by virtue of paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

This report is attached to the agenda under separate cover.

We have received and discussed at length the Executive Director’s report and appendices that reviewed ELWA’s and the Boroughs’ achievements against the Joint Waste Management Strategy (JWMS) and the major issues outstanding.  Additionally it summarised two main areas for negotiation with the contractor in respect of those outstanding issues and provided initial Outline Heads of Terms for a change in contract that would address these issues.

The conclusion of this review was that the Authority was achieving most of its strategy and this explained why there had been no major contract changes to date.  The contract changes now being proposed were relatively modest with the aim of remedying the areas of strategy not yet fully achieved.

In commentary the Executive Director explained that a better understanding of the next few years’ financial parameters, the Government Office for London’s stance on borough recycling targets after 2010/11, and the Mayor’s Waste Management Strategy was required before a formal review and probable change took place in respect of the Joint Waste Management Strategy.  We have also noted the results of the risk assessment that had taken place in respect of the proposed contract changes.

We have raised and discussed our concerns about the materials, as well as quantity and quality, sent to Landfill and the reasons behind it and that customer education needs to be improved.

We have:-

a)  noted the strategy achievement assessment and areas of strategy where there are outstanding issues;

b)  approved the basis of Negotiation 1 and main elements of the current proposal and noted the outline Heads of Terms for a Contract Variation (in respect of recycling targets and incentives and optibag savings) arising from the negotiations;

c)  approved the basis of Negotiation 2 in respect to diversion from landfill arrangements, and

d)  agreed to receive another report at our meeting in November in the context of the Service Delivery Plans for 2010/11 and following years.

This report is attached to the agenda under separate cover.

We have received and discussed at length the Executive Director’s report and appendices.

We have noted the recommendations and agreed to meet again informally before our meeting in November.  We have also agreed to receive a further report on this subject at our formal meeting on the 23 November.

The Chair thanked Officers for all their efforts in preparation for the meeting.

Chair: ………………………………..

Dated:  ………………………………..