Agenda item

To consider a report by the Head of Highways and Environmental Services (copy attached) to outline the take-up to date of the new green waste service, the anticipated income generated by the service and the consequential impact on the service, its budget and budget savings target.

10.45 a.m. – 11.30 a.m.

The Waste and Transport Manager submitted a report (previously circulated) detailing progress on the level of customer take up of the new chargeable green waste scheme together with associated service and budget implications.  He was pleased to report upon the latest customer take up figures and explained in more detail the mechanics of the scheme as follows –

·        the take up target was between 10,000 – 15,000 properties and as of 29 January (two months ahead of the scheme’s commencement) 8,308 properties had signed up for the service, this exceeded the estimated figure at this point in time; this positive trend was expected to continue with a tranche of customers towards the end of March

·        the deadline for the ‘early bird’ discount for those who registered for the scheme had been extended from 31 January to 14 February 2015

·        the on-line registration process had proved extremely effective and easy to use with two thirds having registered on-line

·        the scheme had been introduced as an efficiency saving measure and its take up directly affected the amount of staff required to undertake the work – as it was expected that some individuals would not register for the scheme until the growing season had started it was difficult to confirm at this point how many staff would be made redundant as a consequence of the scheme’s introduction

·        a number of expressions of interest in taking voluntary redundancy had been made across Highways and Environmental Services and it was anticipated that those expressions of interest, coupled with ‘natural wastage’, should be sufficient to cover any redundancies required following the introduction of the new chargeable green waste scheme

·        whilst Denbighshire was the first council in North Wales to introduce charges for collecting and disposal of green waste, six councils in South Wales were already charging for the service.

In response to members’ questions officers –

·        confirmed that the charging policy for the service was fully in-line with the Welsh Government’s Collections Blueprint guidance; it was also similar to what a number of councils in England did with respect to green waste

·        advised that they did not foresee the number of flytipping incidents of green waste increasing greatly following the introduction of the charge.  Responding to reports which indicated that Denbighshire was the worst performing authority in Wales with respect to flytipping statistics, officers advised that this was due to the robust recording practices in the county and the national ‘Flycapture’ data system’s capacity to reflect this and the county’s performance in removing flytipping waste.  This issue had been debated by scrutiny in the last twelve months

·        whilst around 38,000 properties currently had been issued with green bins not all of them used the service and a number composted the waste themselves.  Those who composted were not counted in the county’s recycling figures

·        currently around 4k tonnes of green waste was collected annually in the county and whilst it was assumed that those registered for the scheme would put out more green waste, savings had been calculated based on the number of routes and manpower required to operate the scheme as opposed to the amount of green waste collected

·        it was envisaged that the withdrawal of the free service would result in the Council losing its place at the top of the Welsh recycling league, probably registering a reduction of around 4%.  However, it should still be among one of the highest recyclers and not incur penalties as a result of the reduction in its recycling rate

·        once the new scheme was operational, during the last week in March 2015, it would then be a 12 month recycling service.  Green waste would be collected on a fortnightly basis – 24 collections a year (missing one collection at Christmas)

·        the service would run for 12 months from the first collection which for the majority of people would be March to February next year but for those joining later, e.g. June, they would receive the service until the following May

·        those properties registered with the service would receive barcodes to attach to their green bins, and as an additional verification measure each green collection refuse vehicle would be fitted with GPS equipment to validate bins and property addresses

·        £9k had been set aside to advertise and set up the new service, £4k of which had been earmarked to employ agency staff to deal with the registration process.  To date no agency staff had been employed as the registration process had been undertaken in-house through the use of Service staff who were currently on  ‘light duties’ following injury or sickness

·        assurances were given that refuse lorries did not go out to pick up missed collections which were the fault of the householder and not the authority

·        refuse lorries were on a rolling replacement programme, therefore any vehicles which became surplus to requirements once the take-up of the chargeable service had been established would be disposed of under this programme

·        residents who would not be using the new service and who did not want to keep their green bins would be advised that it was recyclable and that they could take the bin to their local civil amenities site if they wished

·        further publicity around the scheme would be undertaken during the forthcoming months, including advertising on refuse vehicles etc.  Members suggested that it may be useful, as part of this latest publicity campaign, to highlight to residents the value for money aspect of the service in comparison to loading the dirty waste into their cars, cost of fuel and wear and tear of taking it to the local civil amenities site

Members asked officers to monitor the areas of risk associated with this new service during its introduction, particularly the tonnage of residual waste collected in comparison to the current rate, number and nature of flytipping incidents and the take-up of the service by residents.  This information would prove useful to the Scrutiny Task and Finish Group that would be evaluating the impact of the Cutting Our Cloth budget cuts in due course.

RESOLVED that subject to the above observations –

(a)       the report be received, and

(b)       the Scrutiny Task and Finish Group (established to evaluate the impact of the budget cuts) examine and monitor the impact of the introduction of the charges for green waste collections as part of its work on the Cutting Our Cloth proposals.