Minutes:
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 public safe in their shops. This had been a soft launch and plans will be implemented to prevent the shops opening prematurely. The Chair reiterated the necessity of working with Age UK and ensure the shops and volunteers are ready for reopening.
In response to several queries from Councillor Kondakor regarding the booking system, Andrew Pau clarified that there was no requirement to wear facemasks at the recycling centre sites but the public are encouraged to follow Public Health advice. He added that there were constraints with the current booking system ‘Eventbrite’ but hiding booked slots will be investigated. Following a question from Councillor Granger, the Chair reiterated that Andrew Pau will look at all possible solutions.