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.
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