Agenda item

Biffa waste contract performance 2021

The Joint Scrutiny Committee is asked to consider Biffa Municipal Ltd (Biffa) performance in delivering the household waste collection, street cleansing and ancillary services contract for the period 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021 (2021 calendar year) and make any comments before a final assessment on performance is made.

 

Minutes:

The Biffa report was introduced by Cabinet Member for Environment for Vale, Councillor Sally Povolotsky, supported by Cabinet Member for Environment for South, Councillor Sue Cooper.

Supporting officers were Ian Matten, Environmental Services Manager, Paul Fielding, Head of Housing and Environment and Biffa representatives.

 

Chair reminded committee that the garden waste service disruption during the performance period had already been looked at in detail by joint scrutiny committee (Cabinet and Council), therefore additional questions can be raised by email with officers or the Cabinet Member. However, there was the option to go into confidential session this evening if there was a need to discuss anything considered confidential.

 

Councillor Povolotsky summarised the background for the 2021 performance report. The contract was in place until June 2024. There were various issues during the period, such as a lack of HGV drivers. Retaining staff was an issue, and the loss of valuable route knowledge was a concern. The suspension of the garden waste services during the period was to enable retention of regular recycling, food and refuse collections. Concerns were raised about incomplete rounds and missed bins. This was mainly due to issues around staff recruitment and retention.

The overall performance was rated as good. Cabinet Member welcomed committee to provide comments before a final assessment on performance was made.

 

Committee raised the following points:

  • KPT5: what was an incomplete round? Francis Drew confirmed this meant a round was not completed within a day, maybe because of an incident such as a vehicle fault.
  • Table 1 page 28: general increase in waste – Cabinet Member explained that lockdowns meant more deliveries and online shopping, bulk shopping and related packaging. Francis Drew also mentioned that school closures impacted this, particularly relating to food waste, and household number increases. A committee member said it would be interesting to see figures against national trends and against population increases locally. Cabinet Member added that in relation to population increase, proportionally, the waste figures had lowered. The team will look at providing extra data in future.
  • Fly tipping: Committee discussed this topic, Cabinet Member noting that there had been successful campaigns and prosecutions, but members of the committee wondered whether residents know who was responsible and who to report to. They raised concern that resident could no longer report fly tips through Oxfordshire County Council’s “Fix my Street” reporting system.

Action: Chair / interested members can email Councillor Sudbury at Oxfordshire County Council.

  • Missed food bins were queried: it was responded by Cabinet Member that they were small and less conspicuous, and therefore missed
  • Can we track repeated missed bins at a household? Biffa responded that these are tracked
  • Committee discussed untidy public areas, but Cabinet Member explained this would be for future consideration. A lot of this was behaviour change, such as attitude to littering.
  • A member asked Biffa about how they envisage staffing issues to develop over the next year. It was responded that Biffa was investing in pay, but there could still be issues, but Biffa will continue to review how they attract staff. Reviewed route rounds had been created to improve staff work life balance. Andrew Dutton from Biffa added that industrial relations were good.
  • Although not specific to this performance report, when asked about the national picture on waste, Cabinet member informed that she was working with CEAC/CEEAC committees to look into waste in more detail, with case studies and comparisons on the national picture. Information on national waste targets, and what a waste service should look like, was still being awaited from central government. Both councils were in the top five councils for recycling rates.
  • Customer satisfaction surveys were discussed. There were no specific surveys to residents, but officers are looking at their options for engagement. Cabinet Member highlighted other work from the council regarding waste, such as local events staffed by officers on educating and informing.
  • Paragraph 56 was noted as it was felt more should be considered in this section. Potentially raise at CEAC/CEEAC.
  • Cabinet member to contact Gene Webb regarding her topic in public participation.

 

Resolved: Committee considered Biffa performance 2021 and made comments as outlined above.

 

Supporting documents:

 

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