Agenda item

North Warwickshire

Richard Dobbs informed the partnership that Covid-19 was causing issues, but staff were still tested regularly at the local lateral-flow test centres. Paying for green bin collections will start on 1^st April 2021 and they had sold 11,303 subscriptions to this service which was 40% of households and they should sell more in the following weeks.

Nuneaton & Bedworth

Glen McGrandle (Head of Waste and Transport) stated that they were operating under Covid-19 restrictions and introduced lateral-flow tests at their Gresham Road depot. They were working with isolated staff and all waste services were operating as normal. They had a positive sign up rate response for their garden waste collection with 76% of households for 2021-22. Staff were being trained on waste recovery within areas that either are not collected from or contractors charge a lot to collect from. There was an increase in fly-tipping, so smart-cameras were deployed in ‘hot-spot’ areas which were being a successful deterrent. The cameras are portable so they could be moved around if needed. An officer from 3GS was brought in to help with fly-tipping and he had issued 40 fixed penalties, any penalties which are not paid will be taken to court. Glen McGrandle concluded that they were planning to obtain alternative fuel vehicles, work was underway to see if it was viable to host these vehicles at Gresham Road and obtain electric vehicles in 12-18 months.

Rugby

Dan Green (Head of Environmental and Public Realm Senior Management Team) concurred that Covid-19 was causing issues in Rugby, but the measures implemented were working. They received complaints regarding fly-tipping and litter, therefore a campaign was underway to deal with this issue and mitigate any issues that would occur post-lockdown. The campaign will have a targeted approach and ‘nudge theory’ to promote behavioural change and they were hoping to work with neighbouring authorities to share ideas. Dan Green concluded that they will take part in national campaigns like ‘Britain’s Spring Clean’, provide more support for community litter pickers, make reporting litter easier through the Rugby app, and provide more bins in litter ‘hot-spot’ areas.

The Chair noted the Maidstone pilot cameras would be good for the A46 and 45 and if they could get Highways England engaged with this then the council would not need to pick the litter on these roads up. Dan Green added that they were hoping to get a camera implemented for Coventry-City of Culture 2021.

A discussion followed about the issue of fly-tipping and litter in Rugby and the rest of Warwickshire. Glen McGrandle agreed to set up a meeting with officers on law-enforcement with fly-tipping in mid-late April.

Warwick

Julie Lewis (Head of Community and Operational Services) informed the partnership that they extended their Suez contract, the new contract was out for tender and will start in August 2022. They were having similar issues as the other districts, more residual waste and recycling which was costing the district money. Fly-tipping had recently rapidly increased, so Stratford and Warwick were consulting each other on this. The street litter bins were filling up quickly and overflowing so the public were asked to take litter home, as hourly-bin empties were impossible. Due to these issues, Julie Lewis suggested a campaign to get members of the public to take their litter home with them if public bins were full. The Chair agreed with this.

Stratford

Craig Bourne (Contracts Manager-Streetscene) stated that 31,500 subscriptions had been received for the paid green-waste collection service which was over 50% of households with the ‘early bird’ discount proving popular; like North Warwickshire they are expecting this to increase in the summer. Fly-tipping was a corporate priority for Stratford as it had increased a lot and work was done with parish councils to instigate a policy in ‘hot-spot’ areas. Craig Bourne concluded that they teamed up with ‘Material Focus’ which is a non-profit company which promotes the recycling of electricals with ‘hypno-cat’ radio adverts.