Issue - meetings

The Leader raised the following urgent matter – Roll out of the new Recycling and Waste Collection Service.

The Leader declared that he intended to raise the following matter requiring urgent attention – Roll out of the new Recycling and Waste Collection Service.

The Leader apologised on behalf of the Council to residents affected by problems associated with the roll out of the new service and to members who had been working hard on behalf of residents. He also thanked members for reporting missed collections in their wards and residents for their patience and efforts in recycling.

The Leader advised that he had been in daily contact with the Chief Executive, Corporate Director: Environment and Economy and Lead Member regarding the situation.  Whilst collection rates had improved it was clear there needed to be a massive increase in pace and improvement to address the backlog and work to ensure the system was operating properly.  The Leader provided assurances that both he and the Lead Member were providing rigorous challenge to officers to ensure the problems were dealt with as quickly as possible and all were working as hard as possible to clear the backlog, address the problems, and ensure the system was operating correctly going forward.  The events surrounding the roll out of the new system would be subject to a public scrutiny inquiry and that process would commence at the earliest opportunity following the election with a special meeting of the Scrutiny Chairs and Vice Chairs Group convened for 8 July.

The Lead Member, Councillor Barry Mellor submitted his apologies to members and residents.  He added that the roll out was brought forward by the previous Cabinet but as a Cabinet they believed it was the right thing to do and carried on with that.  Councillor Mellor stressed that it was an operational problem and he had been in regular contact with the relevant officers to drive an increase in the pace of improvement.  Together with the Chief Executive and Corporate Director he had been out with the crews to see first-hand the difficulties residents were facing and the hard work of the crews who were putting in extra shifts to address the backlog.  Consequently, he was confident that the issues would be addressed, and the system would be successfully embedded, although not as quickly as envisaged.  He thanked residents for their patience and provided assurances that all was being done to achieve the benefits the new system would bring as quickly as possible.

The Leader permitted questions but reminded members that scrutiny of the roll out of the new service was a separate process via a member-led inquiry.

During debate members took the opportunity to express their concern and distress over the roll out of the new service and the impact on residents with numerous examples of problems within different ward areas, particularly in rural areas.  In speaking on behalf of the Independent Group, Councillor Huw Hilditch-Roberts wished to convey their thanks to the crews and operatives on the frontline who were working hard in difficult circumstances.  He also wished it to be recorded that the former Cabinet voted on the concept of the new service and not its implementation.  Members raised specific questions and concerns regarding various aspects of the service roll out and key failings and sought assurances regarding steps to address both the current backlog and ensure the system operated efficiently going forward, and a number of suggestions were also put forward in that regard.

The Leader, Lead Member, Chief Executive, Corporate Director and Monitoring Officer responded to the questions and issues raised as follows –

·       the impact on residents detrimentally affected by the service change was unacceptable and the Council was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3