Agenda item

The Board considered a Call-In from Councillors Denyer and Justice following the Executive’s decision of 20 January 2009 to implement of a borough-wide scheme of wheelie bins to collect household waste in the light of the results of pilots carried out in five areas across the Borough.

The Call-In Members referred to the reasons for the Call-In stating in their opinion that:

1)  Despite an offer to the contrary all Members had not had the opportunity to be presented with a full analysis of the scheme following the outcomes of the pilot,

2)  Inadequate detail had been given as to how 267 residential properties have been given alternative collection arrangements and the ongoing costs associated with this service,

3)  The comment in the Executive report that “a small increase in staffing due to the additional collections needed”  was again inadequate and had not been quantified or “costed”,

4)  The report clearly identified a need for three additional vehicles at a cost of £130, 000, however there was no costing for the necessity to adapt the existing fleet to be able to undertake wheelie bin collections, and

5)  Inadequate detail had been given to the additional time by operatives taken to collect, transport, load, wait whilst emptying takes place, unloading and returning bin to property and the subsequent effect on productivity.

Councillor Fairbrass, Chair of the Executive, supported by the Corporate Director of Customer Services, responded on behalf of the Executive. Councillor McKenzie, the Executive portfolio Member, was also present to offer comments although he had not been present at the Executive when the decision was taken.

Councillor Fairbrass challenged the suggestion that there had been no offer to make a presentation to all Members. He referred to the report to the Executive on 4 March 2008, where it stated that a further report would be presented at the conclusion of the pilots on the feasibility of rolling the scheme out Borough-wide, including the full financial, legal and contractual implications. This related to the report back to the Executive on 20 January 2009, the agenda for which was circulated in the normal way to all Members, who also had the opportunity to attend the meeting.

Councillor Fairbrass felt that the other points which made up the Call-In had been fully addressed in the report to the Executive. This included, as part of the background papers, reference to a comprehensive independent analysis of all aspects of the pilots, including data about staffing productivity, capital and revenue costs, and alternative collection methods to address the relatively small number of properties for which wheelie bin collection methods will not be appropriate.

A number of operational issues were raised by both Call-In Members concerning the anticipated number of vehicles involved with wheelie bin and other types of refuse collections, levels of fly tipping since the pilots were introduced, and whether the look of the Borough would be enhanced by the scheme. These points were addressed in the report to the Executive and by the Corporate Director of Customer Services at the meeting.

After a number of questions from Board Members, all parties withdrew from the meeting at 7.25pm for the Board to deliberate. The meeting reconvened at 7.40pm and the Board gave their decision which was as follows:

After weighing up all the evidence and having listened carefully to the questions and answers the Board felt strongly that there had been confusion over how the analysis of the pilots was to be reported back and to whom. As a result they,

AGREED to ask the Executive to defer the implementation of the scheme in order to give all Members of their respective parties the opportunity to receive a presentation, thus allowing them to ask questions on how the roll out of the scheme would affect their constituents before a final decision is made.

The Board also placed on record its concerns that, despite raising this issue as part of its consideration of the Forward Plan on two separate occasions, no further information had been forthcoming.