Agenda and minutes

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The committee held a minute silence for Councillors Bill Olner and Richard Chattaway who had passed away since the previous meeting.

The Chair welcomed Councillor Moira-Anne Granger, Becky Davies and Julie Lewis to the committee.

The minutes of the meeting held on 15 January 2020 were approved and signed by the Chair as an accurate record. 

It was clarified that most of the actions from the previous meeting had been completed and the waste crime officer led meeting will be held on the 8th July. The Chair added that there have been increased concerns regarding fly tipping.

Andrew Pau, Strategy and Commissioning Manager (Waste & Environment) for Warwickshire County Council, presented the report and waste data tables. Reusing and recycling rates have increased in the 2019-20-year bracket from the previous year with the current rate being 51.9%; energy recovery had also increased whereas landfill tonnage had decreased. Andrew Pau continued that the current system had been improved and no major changes had occurred.

Following a question from Councillor Keith Kondakor, Glen McCrandle, Head of Waste Transport for Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, stated that they received positive feedback regarding their composting practices and there is no evidence from the waste facility to suggest that the increase in tonnage was caused by the green bin charges.

Ruth Dixon, Waste Strategy and Commissioning Manager for Warwickshire County Council, added that they hold the statistics for green bin sales and home composting workshop. A composition survey has not been completed since September 2018; therefore, it is unknown what the residual waste consisted of. However, the recycling numbers had decreased because of home composting.

Andrew Pau reminded the committee that the changes in Nuneaton and Bedworth were expected. In response to Councillor Moira-Anne Granger, Andrew Pau stated increases in residual waste was expected with green bin charges, but data provided by Rugby Borough Council showed that this waste was within limits.

Julie Lewis, Head of Community and Operational Services for Stratford-on-Avon District Council informed the committee that at Daventry District Council, a three-weekly residual service was introduced with green waste charges. This led to a decrease in residual waste, an increase in green waste, which increased to 62% in 2019, and an increase in food recycling. This sustained and kept improving over the two years since its implementation.

Andrew Pau reminded the committee that April 2020 was the first full month of lockdown and its tonnage statistics were the most current at the time of the meeting. He confirmed that the recycling residual figures increased between 10-20% in April.

Richard Dobbs, Corporate Director - Streetscape for North Warwickshire Borough Council concurred that recycling increased in lockdown, glass recycling increased from 90 to 240 tonnes in April 2020. However, this had led to capacity issues with collection and processing. Jim Perkins, Interim Waste and Transport Manager for Rugby Borough Council, added that there had been an increase of 10-15% with recycling in Rugby.

Councillor Granger stated that Warwick District also had a large green waste increase, but this levelled out whereas recycling had continued to increase.

Resolved

That the Warwickshire Waste Partnership notes the provisional data for the year 2019/20.

The committee commended the work of officers and refuse collectors during the Covid-19 pandemic. Andrew Pau added that the county council needed to close its recycling centres for 12 weeks, but officers were holding weekly meetings to review service delivery. Work between the county, district and borough councils benefitted the county with reinstating these services.

Glen McCrandle agreed with Andrew Pau regarding the county cooperation as this aided with finding the best practice. The Chair and Councillor Howard Roberts acknowledged that waste collection was underappreciated before the pandemic.

Richard Dobbs stated that North Warwickshire suspended their waste collection service for a month due to sick or self-isolating staff. He corresponded with officers across the county and help provided by the county council allowed the borough to return to collecting green waste as quickly as possible. Volunteers within the authority helped with this too. Richard Dobbs informed the committee that North Warwickshire collected twice as much green waste in the first week of lockdown and 2.5 times more green waste in the second week compared to the whole of last year. This has now decreased from 248 tonnes to 118 within a week. However, this would likely fluctuate in accordance to the weather. 

Andrew Pau and Richard Dobbs confirmed that all waste collection services have resumed normality across the county. North Warwickshire opened the walk-in waste collections to coincide with the reopening of household waste recycling centres. Richard Dobbs concluded that there had been an increase in white goods being collected. Andrew Pau continued that the booking system for the household waste recycling centres had been successful in reducing queues; therefore, the site capacity and bookings have been increased for the centres. Andrew Pau concluded that they are currently implementing a system to accept trailers on three different sites: Lower House Farm, Cherry Orchard and Burton Farm, but only on certain days and times of the week.

Following several queries from Councillor Margaret Bell, Andrew Pau clarified that the public should book online but phone messages had been left by members of the public who were unable or had not done this. If it is impossible to book online, including through friends or family, another method will be sought.

The current system at the Prince’s Drive site involved visitors pulling over to the left-hand side of the road and the large area from the cars to the containers was purposefully designed to prevent close contact between visitors and provided the social distancing required. Following a recommendation from Public Health Warwickshire, the 2-metre social distancing measure will not be reduced and only one person can exit a vehicle. Two may exit if they are carrying a large object but the staff cannot help with carrying objects. Andrew Pau concluded that this system had worked so far.

In response to Councillor Jenny Fradgley, Andrew Pau replied that three Age UK contracted charity shops opened on the 15th June. They have had to change its operation to ensure social distancing and keep the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

The Chair invited the officers to brief the committee of updates in their districts and boroughs. All officers thanked their fellow officers from the other districts, boroughs and county for their help during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Richard Dobbs repeated that North Warwickshire is fully operational after suspending their green bin collection and the tonnage implications which resulted from this. Capacity had increased above the normal rate as more collections were needed to service households. Due to the increase in home workers, Richard Dobbs stated they do not know how they will be able to decrease these rounds which will lead to cost and capacity issues. The garden waste charge that was due to be implemented on the 1st June had been postponed until April 2021. Residents of North Warwickshire could obtain an extra green bin until the end of June 2020 with a new service reflecting the capacity issues commencing in July. Richard Dobbs added that the new ‘cab’ technology that was due in September had been delayed. Recently they had struggled with disposing recyclables as their recycle rates had increased by 20% and their refuse collectors have reduced staff and their waste capacity due to social distancing. Richard Dobbs concluded that they are making progress towards opening Warwickshire’s own material recycling facility which they are planning to open in 2023.

Glen McCrandle informed the committee that Nuneaton and Bedworth had focused on keeping services going and utilising internal resources to ensure all waste services worked as normal. Risk and safeguarding measures have been implemented with large waste collection along and seven daily reviewed jobs. All operations, depots and offices will be risk assessed so staff can work safely. He reiterated that household recycling increased by 20% and street cleaning operations are place. Council officers are working from home in localised areas and commercial waste services had reduced their work by 30% due to closed businesses, but this will return to normal. Discussions are being held with Nuneaton and Bedworth’s enforcement partner to reinstate patrols; this should be between four to six weeks after a risk assessment. Glen McCrandle concluded that their garden waste scheme had received positive feedback, and the climate change emergency meetings had recommenced; this included reviewing their waste collection fleet to have electric or hybrid vehicles.

Jim Perkins stated that Rugby suspended their bulky waste collection for two weeks due to the Covid-19 pandemic but all their services were running as normal despite challenges with the tonnage. The two-metre rule will not be relaxed, safety measures have been updated but logistical changes had been halted. The new waste collection vehicles had been delayed due to Covid-19 halting manufacturing across Europe; however, they should arrive July or August 2020. Jim Perkins concluded that there have been 620 more green subscriptions since 2019-2020.

Becky Davis, Recycling Development Officer for Warwick District Council stated that they are tendering contracts to start in April 2021 with bidding and contracts being awarded in September. Textile collection had been suspended due to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Andrew Pau reminded the committee that questions had been raised in the previous meeting regarding strategy. Work had been recirculated in terms of national resources, waste strategy consultation and the response from the Warwickshire Waste Partnership. The committee was informed that the new government strategy will be heavily based on a circular economy with an emphasis on producer responsibility, deposit return scheme and consistency with collection services. This had been delayed but the second round of consultation and a detailed consultation should be released late 2020 or early 2021 and the government will be running summer workshops. Andrew Pau continued that as the strategy will be radical, the partnership agreed to run base linework with Paul Frith; who had worked with other authorities. Covid-19 delayed this but as things normalise, Paul Frith will be contacted to continue this work again.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Warwickshire County Council had to pause its climate change work, but Andrew Pau stated that they were more in line with the council plan. He added that the county council’s climate emergency meeting will be on the 2nd July and district and borough meeting will take place in late July.

Dan Green, Head of Environmental and Public Realm Senior Management Team at Rugby Borough Council, informed the committee that the Local Government Association will host a virtual event on the 1st July, which will focus on advancing climate change goals.

None.

The Chair stated that waste crime will be revisited in the future.

The committee agreed that fly tipping and littering campaigns should be agenda items in the future.

The Chair expressed her gratitude to all officers involved.

30 September 2020, 2.00pm, Committee Room 2, Shire Hall, Warwick

The next dates for the Warwickshire Waste Partnership are:

30th September 2020

9th December 2020