South London Waste Partnership Joint Committee 11 September 2018

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed all present.

Note: The meeting was inquorate pending the arrival of Councillor Gander. During this period Members agreed to delay the start of the meeting pending her arrival. At 18.39 members resolved to start the meeting and discussed the items and views on items to be noted or recommendations adopted. When Councillor Gander arrived the items were reviewed and resolutions to note or agree recommendations were agreed as appropriate and the minutes were also signed and agreed.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Martin Whelton. Councillor Nick Draper attended as substitute.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

Minutes:

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 13 June 2018 were signed and agreed as an accurate record subject to the following amendment:

• That the date of the next meeting be amended to Tuesday 4 December 2018 not Wednesday 5 December as originally minuted.

This report provides Joint Waste Committee with an update on the performance of the three Phase A Contracts applicable to the South London Waste Partnership:

i.        Contract 1 – Transport and Residual Waste management

ii.       Contract 2 – HRRC services – HRRC site management and material recycling

iii.      Contract 3 – Marketing of recyclates and treatment of green and food waste

This report provides performance data for the period 1^st April 2018 until 30^th June 2018.

This report also provides Joint Waste Committee with an update on the Phase B Contract.

Additional documents:

• Quarterly Dashboard Q1 2018-19 , item 5. PDF 58 KB

Minutes:

Annie Baker, Strategic Partnership Manager presented the report.

It was highlighted under Contract 1:

• There had been a small decrease in residual waste of 2.4% which would continue to be monitored closely.
• The contract continued to operate effectively.

Contract 2:

• All reconfigurations at the HRRCs (Household Re-Use and Recycling Centres) had been completed although there was the potential for further changes in the future.
• There were positive results received from the satisfaction surveys with the target of 80% satisfaction consistently exceeded and an increase in the satisfaction with queueing times.
• The recycling performance at the majority of the sites was above the 70% target.

Contract 3 was meeting expectations.

In regards to Phase B (Construction of the Energy Recovery Facility) the Strategic Partnership Manager advised that expected completion was at the end of October 2018 and was currently receiving waste for testing as part of the commissioning phase which continued to go well. A further update would be brought to the next meeting.

Members discussed the high satisfaction rates and advised that they had received positive feedback regarding helpful staff at the HRRCs and requested that this was passed on the staff there.

Members noted that the number of responses to the surveys had decreased during the last period and queried whether officers could be confident that these responses were representative. The Communications Advisor responded that Veolia had advised that there were a number of repeat users at the sites who were therefore less likely to fill out the survey again, however the number of respondents was still fairly high. This would be reviewed as to whether there needed to be a rest period before restarting the surveys.

Members expressed that they wanted to work together to reduce the size of landfill bins and increase recycling and to share information between boroughs to ensure that the positive points from each rollout would be shared.

Councillor Abellan stated that Sutton had seen a 13% point increase in recycling rates and hopefully this would be reflected across the partnership with the roll-outs across the other Boroughs.

Members asked if there were any plans to further reduce the amount of food waste going to disposal overall. The Strategic Partnership Manager responded that often food waste amounts would peak and then diminish, possibly as it became evident to residents how much food they were disposing of, however the only way to get information on how much food waste is being put into the residual waste bins would be through detailed waste audits. It was suggested that the rollout would need to take place first and then the amounts of waste still not being recycled or disposed of through the correct streams could be assessed.

RESOLVED: that members noted the contents of the report and commented on any aspects of the performance of the Partnerships Phase A and B contracts.

At its meeting in December 2017 the Joint Waste Committee (JWC) agreed to commission a review of its governance arrangements to consider whether its remit should be expanded to include the waste collection contract. This report presents the review and recommendations

Minutes:

The Strategic Partnership Manager presented the report and outlined the various options that were available to the Committee as detailed within the report.

Members expressed that it was vital to have some form of collective scrutiny when looking at performance and also awarding any future contract and that Veolia needed to be held formally to account and that it needed to be made clear that it was always under review. Members expressed that this should be looked at collectively as the view would be stronger as 4 boroughs together.

Councillor Collin s proposed that the Committee agree options 2 and 3 as detailed within the report and this was seconded by Councillor Abellan.

RESOLVED: That members agreed:

• to work both informally and formally within the existing remit of the Committee to assist the Boroughs by offering non-binding guidance on waste management as a whole, and by commissioning comprehensive annual reports analysing the overall performance of the Partnership’s various contracts; and
• to defer consideration of the remit of the Joint Committee until 2020 at the earliest so that it would be ancillary to borough decisions about the extension or otherwise of the current waste collection and street cleansing contract.

This paper provides an update on the Partnership’s budget position for month 4 (July) of the financial year and the projected outturn for the 2018/19 financial year.

Minutes:

Michael Mackie, Finance Officer presented the report, noting that there were no variations to report.

RESOLVED: That the report was noted.

This paper provides the proposed budget for the Partnership for 2019/20 for its core activities.

Minutes:

Michael Mackie, Finance Lead presented the report advising that the Committee was required to produce a draft by 31 October and the draft would then be considered by each of the individual boroughs before being brought back to the Committee to agree.

The Finance Lead noted there was a £92k increase from 2018/19, advising that this allowed for the pay increases of staff of 2% as part of the national pay award, as well as £40k for a residents survey and this increase would also fund a proposed new role of Waste Strategy Officer which was currently subject to the approval of a Business Case. It was noted this would be removed should the business case not be agreed.

Members raised that this amounted to an increase of nearly 13% and requested that a further breakdown of costs be provided to the Committee.

The Finance Lead advised that the budget decision itself would be taken at the next Committee meeting in December 2018 and further detail would be included in the next report.

Members advised that the recommendation in the report stated to agree the draft budget and requested that the wording be amended to agree that the draft budget, after being considered by each Boroughs Finance Directors, would be brought back to the Committee at the next meeting for approval.

It was therefore

RESOLVED: that members agreed that the draft budget be circulated to each of the 4 boroughs in consultation with finance directors for agreement at the next meeting.

This paper provides an update to members of the South London Waste Partnership Joint Committee on communications and stakeholder engagement activities relating to the Partnership’s Phase A (transport & residual waste management, HRRC services and marketing of recyclates) and Phase B (residual waste treatment) contracts.

Minutes:

John Haynes, Communications Advisor presented the report, providing an update on Communications and Engagement activities for the Phase A and B contracts.

The Communications Advisor gave an update on the Plastic Planet targeted social media campaign, advising that this had gone live in 3 of the 4 Boroughs (with Croydon to go live on 20 September so as not to interrupt the rollout communications) and this was performing well having been viewed 44,000 times by 18,000 individuals, with 14,000 viewing for 10 seconds or more (the advert in its entirety) which amounted to a cost of 3p per view.

In regards to Phase A Section 3 the customer satisfaction surveys were continuing and information signs advising how bulky materials were dealt with were being installed shortly.

In regards to Phase B, the Communications Advisor stated that he was working closely with Viridor regarding the communications to be provided once the facility was operational and further details were provided within the report. It was noted that guided tours would be available of the facilities with a minimum of 12 per year and that school visits were encouraged and would be facilitated.

The Communications Advisor advised that Viridor are required to hold annual meetings of the Community Liaison Group once the facility was operational however these meetings would continue to run quarterly for the first year of operation.

Members expressed that the partnership needed to be accountable to show where recycling goes once collected and that this needed to be explained.

Members raised emissions monitoring data and asked how and where this was measured. The Communications Advisor advised that reassurance did need to be provided about where recycling was being sent and responded that emissions data was measured on site and that the Environment Agency had access to this data 24 hours a day and would monitor this and they currently provided this information to the public on request.

Members asked if the data could be made available on the SLWP website or through individual boroughs and officers undertook to explore the resource implications of this.

Members discussed single-use plastics and noted that Kingston and Sutton had passed motions recently regarding their usage and Merton were also looking at this subject. Members agreed it would be useful to work together and share information in this regard.

RESOLVED: that the Committee noted the report and commented on any aspects of communications and engagement  activities relating to the Phase A and B contracts.

Minutes:

There was no urgent business.

To exclude the public from the meeting under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that it is likely that exempt information, as defined in paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A to the Act, would be disclosed and the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

This paragraph covers information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)

Minutes:

RESOLVED: That the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

Included in the exempt agenda supplement

Minutes:

The risk register was reviewed.

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 5 December 2018 at the London Borough of Merton Civic Offices.

Minutes:

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 4 December 2018 at Merton Civic Offices at 6.30pm.