Agenda and draft minutes

Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, County Hall, Ruthin and by video conference

Media

Webcast: View the webcast

Items
No. Item

1.

APOLOGIES

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Joan Butterfield (Chair) and Elfed Williams.

 

 

2.

DECLARATION OF INTERESTS pdf icon PDF 118 KB

Members to declare any personal or prejudicial interests in any business identified to be considered at this meeting.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Brian Jones declared a personal interest in business item 7, Household Waste Recycling Centres, as he was the Lead Member for Waste, Transport and Environment at the time of awarding the contract for operating the Household Waste Recycling Centres to Bryson Recycling Limited.

 

Councillor Merfyn Parry declared a personal interest in business item 7, Household Waste Recycling Centres as the company who employed him dealt with Biogen Food Waste Services in Waen, St. Asaph.

 

 

3.

APPOINTMENT OF VICE-CHAIR pdf icon PDF 184 KB

To appoint a Vice-Chair for Partnerships Scrutiny Committee for the municipal year 2025/26 (copy of Role Description attached)

 

10.05am – 10.10am

Additional documents:

Minutes:

In the absence of the Chair the Scrutiny Coordinator presided over the election of the Vice-Chair and explained that the person appointed to the role would be expected to chair the current meeting.

 

Councillor Jeanette Chamberlain-Jones nominated Councillor Brian Jones for the position of Vice-Chair of Partnerships Scrutiny Committee for the 2025/26 municipal year.  Councillor Jones’ nomination for the role was seconded by Councillor Terry Mendies.  No other nominations were received and the Committee:

 

Resolved:  that Councillor Brian Jones be elected as Vice-Chair of Partnerships Scrutiny Committee for the 2025/26 municipal year.

 

 

4.

URGENT MATTERS AS AGREED BY THE CHAIR

Notice of items which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency pursuant to Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

No items of and urgent nature had been referred to the Scrutiny Coordinator for the Chair’s attention prior to the commencement of the meeting.

 

 

5.

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS DOTX 33 KB

To receive the minutes of the:

 

(i)            Informal Joint Scrutiny Meeting for the Conwy and Denbighshire Youth Justice Service held on 18 March 2025 (copy attached).

 

(ii)          Partnerships Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 3 April 2025 (copy attached).

 

10.10am – 10.15am

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the following meetings were submitted:

 

(i)             Informal Joint Scrutiny Meeting for the Conwy and Denbighshire Youth Justice Service held on 18 March 2025

 

Councillor Jeanette Chamberlain-Jones advised that she had formally tendered her apologies for the above meeting and that they were not recorded.  No other matters of accuracy were raised.  The Committee:

 

Resolved:  subject to the inclusion of Councillor Chamberlain-Jones’ name under the ‘Apologies’ section, that the minutes of the Informal Joint Scrutiny Meeting for the Conwy and Denbighshire Youth Justice Service held on 18 March 2025 be approved as a true and accurate record of the proceedings.

 

(ii)            Partnerships Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 3 April 2025

 

No matters of accuracy were raised with respect these minutes.  Therefore, it was:

 

Resolved:  that the minutes of the Partnerships Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 3 April 2025 be approved as a true and accurate record of the proceedings.

 

No matters were raised in connection with the contents of either set of minutes.

 

 

6.

REVIEW OF THE CABINET DECISION RELATING TO THE PUBLIC CONVENIENCES SAVINGS PROPOSAL - LOCAL NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND DRAFT LOCAL TOILET STRATEGY pdf icon PDF 316 KB

To consider a report by the Scrutiny Coordinator (copy attached) the purpose of which is to seek the Committee, in accordance with the Council’s Call-In Procedure Rules, to review the decision taken by Cabinet on 29th April 2025.

 

10.15am – 11.15am

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Scrutiny Co-ordinator welcomed Councillor Barry Mellor Lead Member for Environment & Transport to the meeting and explained that he had been invited to attend specifically to answer members’ questions relating to the decision.  The Scrutiny Co-ordinator introduced the report (previously circulated) and outlined to the Committee the procedure that would be followed to hear the reasons why the decision had been called-in for scrutiny and determine whether it merited being referred back to Cabinet for re-consideration.  She explained that if, at the end of its deliberations, the Committee did decide to refer the decision back to Cabinet seeking it to review its original decision, it needed to formulate a clear recommendation for Cabinet to consider and explain clearly the rationale behind the recommendation.

 

Members who were signatories to the call-in were called upon to give statements on the reasons why they had invoked the call-in procedure to seek a review of the Cabinet decision taken on 29th April 2025, relating to the Public Conveniences Savings Proposal – Local Needs Assessment and Draft Local Toilet Strategy.  The signatories being Councillors Andrea Tomlin, David Williams, Karen Edwards, Hugh Evans, and Huw Hilditch-Roberts.  It was clarified that originally Councillor Christopher Evans’ name had been listed as the fifth signatory but, by virtue of his e-mail received on 9th May 2025, Councillor Huw Hilditch-Roberts had become the fifth signatory.

 

Councillor Andrea Tomlin, as the lead signatory, was invited to present the reasons why they had called the decision in for scrutiny. She thanked the Chair for allowing her to speak and advised that the reasons for the call in were as detailed in Annex A to the report.  She outlined the reasons why each element contained within the decision should be reviewed as follows –

 

1.            (a)  That Cabinet approves the local needs assessment.’

Cabinet should revisit this decision as they felt it was based on a flawed report. The assessment declare that Dyserth had no need at all for public toilets. This was clearly incorrect as anyone who was familiar with the village was aware of its popularity.  Furthermore, Dyserth had not even been subject to an ‘assessment of needs by community and visitor population’ on the basis that the system used to collect tourism data has no data available for Dyserth.  Therefore, Denbighshire County Council (DCC) had deemed it to be ‘unlikely to have a serious seasonal need for public toilets.’ The current Cabinet consisted of 6 members from Rhyl and Prestatyn who should be fully aware of Dyserth’s popularity as a visitor destination and its attractions; the waterfall; walks; river; public houses and eateries, along with the popular annual duck race. The other three Cabinet members should also surely be aware of these too.

Whilst seasonal visitor numbers had been identified for Rhuddlan and St Asaph, they too were deemed not to meet the threshold of need for a public toilet at. As signatories they felt it was wholly unfathomable and unacceptable to accept an assessment report recommending the removal of such vital and much used facilities, based only on a desktop report, with what seemed to be a serious lack of any local knowledge.

2.            (b)  That Cabinet approves the draft local toilet strategy.’

Cabinet’s approval of this strategy should be revisited as it stated that it would ‘focus on identified need only’, thus implying that that identified local needs assessment was accepted as correct, which in the signatories’ opinion it was not as explained under (a).  It the Strategy was based on the ‘flawed’ local needs assessment it would leave Rhuddlan and Dyserth as well as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

HOUSEHOLD WASTE RECYCLING CENTRES pdf icon PDF 151 KB

To consider a report (which includes a confidential appendix) by the Waste Contracts, Procurement and Strategy Performance Officer (copy attached) which seeks the Committee to examine the effectiveness of the contract in place for managing and operating the Council’s household waste recycling centres.

 

11.30am – 12.15pm

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Lead Member for Environment & Transport introduced the Household Waste Recycling Centres report (previously circulated) alongside the Corporate Director: Economy and Environment, Head of Highways & Environmental Services, and the Waste Contracts, Procurement & Strategy Performance Officer. The report provided details of the progress achieved with respect of the contract let by the Council in 2022 for the management and operation of Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs). The Contract was jointly procured with Conwy County Borough Council (CCBC) and awarded to Bryson Recycling Limited.

 

The Committee were guided through the different elements of the report, and the key areas that the contract was aimed to deliver, which were –

 

·         Financial Cost Savings - the Contract was forecast to deliver significant cost savings on its predecessor, and this was being borne out. More details on the actual savings were contained in Appendix A to the report, which was confidential and excluded from being publicly available. 

·         Recycling Performance – whilst recycling rates in Denbighshire were at a high level before the start of the contract, the slight improvement achieved was significant as legislative changes had reduced the range of materials Denbighshire could recycle.  Data for 2024/25 showed a downturn in recycling of around 4%. This was mainly due to increased volumes of residual waste received at Recycling Parks during Q1 and Q2 following the launch of the new kerbside collection service rather than a downturn in the Contractor’s performance. This still placed Denbighshire in the second quartile (9th out of 22) for HWRC recycling in Wales.

·         Customer Satisfaction - officers outlined customer feedback received emphasising and clarified that a direct comparison with the previous contract was not possible. However, the results of a customer satisfaction survey, undertaken in April 2024, had recorded that 96% of site visitors were either satisfied or very satisfied with the service received. Conwy CBC administrated the booking system, and satisfaction ratings were also high for this service, averaging 4.7 out of 5.

·         Complaints - no numerical data was available on complaints. However, the complaints received were infrequent.  The main points of concern raised related to the requirement to make bookings to use recycling parks, inconsistencies regarding charges for non-household waste, and staff attitude/behaviour at the sites.

·         Booking System - The requirement for residents to make bookings to use the Recycling Parks was a key part of this Contract. There was a very high level of acceptance, and the appointment system contributed to the benefits in terms of cost and recycling performance. The booking system was a cross-border system; residents could use their preferred site irrespective of which Council area in which they lived. Roughly 275 bookings were made by Denbighshire residents at Conwy sites each month, and a further 200 were made at Plas Madoc in Wrexham.

·         Re-use Shop - the re-use shop at Marsh Road Recycling Park in Rhyl had not yet reached the expected business levels. Third-sector partners had experienced difficulties in recruiting and were not able to offer a consistent service.  Since Bryson had taken over the operation of the re-use shop in April 2024, it had benefitted from consistent staffing levels and a more professional approach.

 

During the ensuing discussion, the following points were raised –

 

·         that members and probably residents were not aware that the system operated across county borders and that you could book for sites in either Conwy or Denbighshire. Members suggested that bolstered communications on the matter would be beneficial to the residents who used the recycling centres. Officers agreed with the suggestion of increasing communications on the matter and would investigate the matter.

8.

SCRUTINY WORK PROGRAMME pdf icon PDF 155 KB

To consider a report by the Scrutiny Coordinator (copy enclosed) seeking a review of the committee’s forward work programme and updating members on relevant issues.

 

12.15pm – 12.30pm

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Scrutiny Co-ordinator introduced the report and appendices (previously circulated), which sought the Committee to review its future work programme.

 

Members were informed that there were not any substantial changes to the work programme; there was one item scheduled for the July meeting which was the Annual Report on Adult Safeguarding 2024/25.

 

Members were advised that the next Scrutiny Chairs and Vice-Chairs Group (SCVCG) meeting was scheduled to be held on 28 April 2025. Their attention was drawn to Appendix 2, which contained the Members’ Scrutiny Proposal form. This form required completion and return if members had any topics, they wished to be considered for inclusion on a future scrutiny committee forward work programme.

 

The Committee:

 

Resolved:  subject to the inclusion of the topics detailed in the report, to confirm its programme of future work as set out in Appendix 1 to the report.

 

 

9.

FEEDBACK FROM COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES

To receive any updates from Committee representatives on various Council Boards and Groups

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

 

 

Meeting concluded at 12.25pm