Agenda item

Warwickshire County Council

Ruth Dixon updated the partnership on the Household Waste and Recycling Centres customer satisfaction online survey which was conducted from 20 December 2023 to 4 February 2024. A draft report was received and was being reviewed. A higher response rate was noted than previous years with around 1500 responses. Overall satisfaction was 83% which was the same percentage as the previous survey, two years ago. Overall support for the booking system was 58%, an increase from 46% in the previous survey. Further work would take place on the review of the draft report as well as looking at the data for the HWRC’s and what information to action. An additional question had been added to the survey in relation to the reuse shops. Tenders were due out in May 2024 as new contract(s) would be needed for all reuse by 5 November 2024. 

In response to a question from Councillor Tim Sinclair, Ruth Dixon advised that two press releases had been sent out with regards to the survey, alongside communications to all councillors on different committees and partnerships and social media coverage over three different platforms. There were links to the survey on the County Council website and was included on emails to anyone who had booked appointments. Ruth Dixon felt this may have naturally caused more users of the facilities to respond, however, the only way to increase coverage to non-users would have incurred higher costs which had not been in the budget.

Councillor Sinclair added that it would be useful to know what proportion of the community used the recycling centres compared to the data presented on the online survey.  A discussion followed and it was agreed that this was not a statistic currently collected. Andrew Pau commented that this survey was online only.

Ruth Dixon continued with the update, covering the following points.

·       eNewsletters – regular eNewsletters were sent out to subscribers and data reports showed that this was being read by 50% of those subscribed, which was comparable by industry standards.

·       School visits – the teams plan included ongoing visits to schools, where they discussed composting, recycling, and reducing plastic waste. The goal set was to visit 50 unique schools in the financial year, engaging with nearly 10,000 primary school aged students and their families.

·       Home composting - a series of home composting events had been planned for spring. Last year 18 events were held, engaging with 350 individuals. Currently, 12 events had been booked, with more to be confirmed. Additionally, the County Council offered discounts on cold and hot composters, with the offer to update local authority websites with the information.

·       Social Media – the services presence on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) enjoyed a strong following. Notably, one post received 10,000 views due to a slight controversy.

North Warwickshire Borough Council

Rob Bellamy, Interim Head of Streetscape commented that NWBC was working on the DEFRA food waste solutions and was hoping to have a rough idea which way to head by the end of April 2024. Garden waste was being promoted with a bigger uptake in 2024. Rob also commented on the Sherbourne MRF and discussed his recent visit. He informed the partnership that Sherbourne could advise local authorities on contamination figures which could be used to target specific areas.

Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council

Alastair Blunkett, Assistant Director for Environment and Enforcement advised that there was not a lot to add to the update except that the team were working hard on a food waste solution. Some communications around vaping and nappies had been circulated with residents and Sherbourne was being asked for more information to target these areas.

Rugby District Council

Councillor Carolyn Watson-Merret advised that the education officer had engaged schools and children with a challenge to name the Council’s recycling vehicles. The mayor had been involved and advertorials were being sent out. Councillor Watson-Merret agreed with Alastair from NBBC regarding the targeting of nappies and would contact Sherbourne MRF on a later date to discuss.

Warwick District Council

Zoe Court, Contract Services Manager, updated the group, advising on taking part in Keep Britian Tidy, ‘The Great British Spring Clean’. WDC was in the process of advising residents about the reduced rate on bulk collections for smaller items. The new enforcement team was actively issuing fixed fines when necessary and was campaigning on residential fly tipping.

Stratford District Council

Angela Lloyd – Streetscene Lead Contracts Officer had nothing further to add to the written report apart from advising that the coffee pod collection services was going very well, and garden waste subscriptions were also proceeding as expected.