Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room Five, County Offices, Newland, Lincoln Lincs LN1 1YL. View directions

Contact: Rachel Wilson  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

64.

PARTNERSHIP MANAGEMENT ISSUES

64a

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors M Brookes (Boston Borough Council) and R Gambba-Jones (South Holland District Council). 

 

Apologies were also received from George Bernard (Boston Borough Council) and Emily Spicer (South Holland District Council).

64b

Declaration of Interests

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest at this point in the meeting.

64c

Minutes of the meeting held on 19 November 2015 pdf icon PDF 167 KB

Minutes:

It was requested that the Partner Update for South Holland District Council (Minutes 61f) be amended to read as follows: "A working party was considering the benefits of a proposal for crews to work 4 days per week instead of five on a rota basis, but collections would still be carried out five days per week.  This would require slightly earlier starts"

 

It was commented that at the last meeting, it had been reported that there would be a seminar on fly tipping in the Spring and it was queried whether there were any more details on this.  The Partnership was advised that there were still plans to run this session, but it was likely to be late Spring and details would be circulated in due course.

 

RESOLVED

 

            That the minutes of the meeting held on 19 November 2015 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record subject to the above amendment.

 

 

65.

STRATEGIC ISSUES

65a

Future of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership

i.              LARAC Presentation

ii.            Members Vision for the LWP

iii.           Ambitions of the LWP (10 year strategy)

iv.           Recyclables

v.            Fly Tipping Enforcement

Minutes:

i) LARAC Presentation

 

The Partnership received a short presentation by LARAC (Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee) from Lincolnshire County Council's Group Manager Environmental Services which provided further detail in the following areas:

·         MRF Code of Practice

·         What is the effect for LA's?

·         Tackling the problem

·         Do residents really care?

·         So what can we do

·         Consistency in collections

·         Conclusions

 

Some of the comments raised during discussion of this presentation were as follows:

·         There was a need for focus on the MRF Code of Practice to promote reassurance of quality;

·         Costs were rising and contamination was a key issue, and all partners had fewer resources;

·         One of the key points from the presentation was consistency in collections.  It was noted that plastics were the biggest problem;

·         LARAC was engaging more with industry and retailers to tackle this problem.

 

ii) Members Vision for the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership

 

The Chairman asked the Partnership to consider what the vision for the LWP should be.  Across the country there was a need to change for what was best, as well as responding to the market.

 

Some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         There was a need to work towards unanimity of recycling.

·         There would be a need to decide whether co-mingled recycling was what the county wished to proceed with.

·         It was commented that if bottles were put into the recycling with 'caps on' this helped to reduce water contamination.

·         It was suggested that there was a need to look again at working to reduce waste at source by working with retailers.  It was noted that recyclables were a commodity for local authorities, but there would be a saving if there was not as much need to collect it.  It was acknowledged that there would always be some level of packaging required.

·         It was suggested that things it was known could be recycled easily should be collected, and consider whether things which were difficult to recycle were worth collecting.

·         Lids on bottles could be mixing plastic types.

·         Going forward, the Partnership were not decision makers.  The decisions would be made by the Leaders and Chief Executives, and would be based on budget.  It was suggested there may be a need for an arms-length trading vehicle as residents did not care who collected their bins.  There was just a need to dispose of it efficiently.

·         Recyclables were a world-wide market, and demand would respond to this market rather than political need.

·         If there was a need for a separate body with its own board, members would need to take this back to their own authorities.

·         The role of the LWP at this time was to try and influence.

·         There was a possibility that food waste could be included in recycling targets, and that recycling targets could be increased.  It was suggested that there would be a need to plan ahead and be ready for any changes, rather than just reacting to them.

 

iii) Ambitions of the LWP (10 year strategy)

 

The Partnership discussed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65a

65b

Waste Budget Proposals

(To receive a presentation which provides information in relation to the proposed budget for Waste and Recycling services)

Minutes:

The Lincolnshire Waste Partnership received a presentation from Lincolnshire County Council's Chief Operating Officer in relation to the waste budget proposals which provided more details information in relation to the following areas:

·         Provisional Local Government Grant Settlement

·         Proposed Waste Management Savings

·         Waste Management – Challenging the Service Further

 

The Partnership was provided with the opportunity to discuss this in more detail and ask questions to the officers present, and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         Waste Management had been recognised as a high priority area, but even high priority areas had been asked to make contributions to the required savings.

·         The service area had become more strategic in the last 4/5 years with the building of Waste Transfer Stations (WTS's) and Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC's).  The authority would like to offer supplementary services but there was no longer funding available for it.

·         Concerns had been raised with members regarding the knock on effects of Whisby HWRC closing such as increased traffic into Lincoln to use Great Northern Terrace HWRC instead.

·         It was commented that there was a large growth agenda around Skellingthorpe and Hykeham and the Chairman would like to see additional provision in the Teal Park area, when the need arose.

·         It was reported that approximately 0.5% was allowed in the budget for growth in the waste stream.

·         As the authority had been increasing the savings which had been made, the cost pressures had also been increasing.

·         It was clarified that the stopping of the Saturday Supplementary Services in Long Sutton referred to all supplementary services throughout South Holland.  It was commented that it was not thought that there would be a lot of negative feedback, as the more vociferous objectors had realised the position that the local authorities were in.

·         It was commented that part of a member's role was to explain to parish councils why services would be changing or stopping, and ensure that they understood the reasons behind it.

·         There were discussions to be held regarding joint working and the WTS at Louth.  If there was a decision to have a single haulage contract, East Lindsey requested that they were included in the discussions.  It was noted that the current contract was fixed until 2018, and so nothing could change until then, but officers would be happy to discuss any options.

 

RESOLVED

 

            That the points raised during discussion be noted.

66.

OPERATIONAL ISSUES

66a

Partner Updates

(To provide partners with an opportunity to update the rest of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership on any developments within their areas which may affect or be of interest to the Partnership as a whole)

Minutes:

Members of the Partnership were provided with the opportunity to update the rest of the Partners on any developments within their individual districts which may be of interest, and the following was reported;

 

East Lindsey District Council – A Transformation programme had been released with the budget with savings for the next four years.  It was reported that the cost of collecting bulky waste was to be increased, as well as green waste.  There was also the potential for commercial waste collections in East Lindsey.  The impact of grass in the recycling was also being examined.

 

South Kesteven District Council – There had been a successful fly-tipping prosecution due to CCTV evidence which had been linked to a shop.  The district would soon go live with the introduction of direct debits for green bin payments. 

 

West Lindsey District Council – The authority would be supporting communities for the DCLG initiative of 'Clean for the Queen'.

 

South Holland District Council – Green waste collections would commence in April.  The authority would also be supporting communities in the 'Clean for the Queen' project.

 

City of Lincoln Council – The initiative for on street enforcement was progressing well, and a paper would be brought to a future meeting.

 

RESOLVED

 

            That the updates presented be noted.

 

 

66b

Waste Collaboration Project Update

(To receive a presentation from Mark Taylor, North Kesteven District Council on progress being made with the Waste Collaboration Project)

Minutes:

The Partnership received a presentation from North Kesteven District Council's Head of Environment and Public Protection in relation to the Waste Collaboration Project which provided further information in relation to the following areas:

·         Three main areas considered

·         Route Review

·         Management Structures

·         Support Services Costs

·         Next Steps

 

It was reported that the most significant elements of the project so far were the route review, management structure and support services.  This was originally a three phase project, and the next phase would be to explore these elements in more detail, and phase three would be look at implementation.

 

RESOLVED

 

            That the presentation be noted.

66c

Energy from Waste Update

(To receive an update on the working of the Energy from Waste facility at North Hykeham)

Minutes:

The Partnership received an update on the Energy from Waste (EfW) facility at North Hykeham where it was reported that it continued to work very efficiently and effectively.  There would be a planned outage in March 2016 to repair a small leak near the grate.  It was planned that the facility would shut down on the Friday evening and be operational again by the Monday.

 

It was reported that there was a need to ensure that lids of wheelie bins were replaced if they were damaged to reduce the amount of moisture collected in them, which could have an effect on the operation of the EfW.  It was suggested whether advice to residents on keeping bin lids closed should also be included in the article on recycling for County News, and it was agreed that this could be helpful.  Although it was acknowledged that recent adverse weather conditions were capable of opening bin lids.

 

It was reported that in relation to replacing bin lids, authorities were having difficulties in obtaining just the lids from suppliers, but several partners reported that they had suitable stocks of pins.

 

It was commented whether something could be included in the publicity about where the waste goes, as one member reported that people within his area still thought that waste went to landfill rather than the EfW.

 

RESOLVED

 

            That the update be noted.

66d

Officer Working Group Update

(To receive an update on the work of the Officer Working Group)

Minutes:

It was reported that there were two items to update the Partnership on from the Officer Working Group, as follows:

 

·         Joint Statement on Road Traffic Accident's – this had been circulated and comments back had been requested from districts.  It was requested that officers chase this up at their own authorities.

·         EfW gate fees – this information had now been shared with districts.

 

It was noted that the City Of Lincoln would be sending their comments through shortly, as their legal services had come back with a number of objections.

 

RESOLVED

 

            That the update be noted.

 

 
 
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