Agenda item

To consider the attached paper regarding recycling and waste collection over Christmas and New Year 2010/11. 

The committee considered a briefing paper on the outcome of an investigation into the problems experienced with recycling and waste collections over the Christmas and New Year period last winter.  The committee recalled that heavy snowfall had occurred on Saturday 18 December 2010, leaving the roads too dangerous to operate large recycling and waste collections vehicles on two days, Monday 20 and Tuesday 21 December.  The committee heard that the following Saturday being Christmas Day was not available to the contractor for catching up.  In accordance with the pre-agreed winter plan, the contractor was instructed not to attempt to catch up missed collections as three days had been lost and there was already a publicised plan for catching up collections after the Christmas and New Year holidays.  To disrupt this would affect all Vale residents, not just those with missed collections.  The council announced updates on the changing situation through local radio and the council’s website.  Garden waste collection vehicles were diverted to help collect other waste. 

The committee questioned the strategic director who was responsible for this service at the time and questioned the contractor.  Councillors noted that there had been some cases where extra waste placed in bags had not been collected.  The committee noted that this could have been due to the collection vehicle being for recycling only on the day in question.  The contractor could not contaminate recycling collection vehicles with non-recyclable waste. 

The committee asked how the council would cope with the worst-case scenario.  The strategic director reported that the recycling and waste collection service was one of the best value in the country, being relatively low cost and yet the council was achieving the highest recycling rates.  The contract had been set up to achieve best value for money, not to cope with sustained inclement weather.  If councillors wished for a higher standard of service to cope with adverse weather conditions, this would cost the council significantly more and should be considered in next year’s budget-setting exercise. 

The committee believed that as recycling and waste collection was the council’s highest profile service, the council should prepare contingency plans in the event of an unavoidable service disruption.  The Cabinet should be made aware of the committee’s concerns.  The committee suggested that contingency plans should be made now, including:

• the contractor providing boots for its staff
• securing good stocks of salt for path clearing
• arranging for indoor storage of salt to prevent stocks freezing
• contacting Oxfordshire County Council to find out which roads were accessible
• using parish councils and district councillors to disseminate information by providing updates at least once a day where necessary
• using the same script to inform residents, the website, local councils and councillors to achieve consistent communication 
• advertising collection dates in local newspapers
• finding out which collections were missed each day and prioritising them for the next day
• opening the call centre longer to accommodate residents that rang early in the morning or in the evening

Councillors noted that the contractor would be reviewing its business continuity plan. 

The chair invited Councillor Reg Waite, the Cabinet member for the recycling and waste service, to address the meeting.  Firstly, Councillor Waite thanked the committee for its suggestions.  He agreed to consider these when formulating a contingency plan.  He accepted that communication needed improving and agreed that keeping parish councils informed was important as many local councils had details of their parishioners’ email addresses and could disseminate information quickly.  He also reported that the county council had offered every parish one tonne of salt to distribute in its village throughout the winter.  He reminded the committee that the council would never be able to plan to cover all eventualities but would do the best it could. 

The Cabinet member reported that he had been discussing this matter at monthly meetings with the head of service.  He would produce a contingency plan and was happy to bring this back to the committee in October. 

RESOLVED: To refer the committee’s suggestions for a contingency plan to the Cabinet member for the recycling and waste service, and request that he brings a contingency plan to the committee meeting in October.