Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor M Brookes and George Bernard (Boston Borough Council) and Emily Spicer (South Holland District Council)

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

RESOLVED

            That the minutes of the meeting held on 24 November 2016 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Officers were thanked for sending the draft minutes to members of the Partnership shortly after the meeting and also for including comments made by Councillor R Gambba–Jones.

The action notes as presented were noted.

(For Partners to share any developments or areas of good practice which may be of interest to the Partnership)

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 noted:

Lincolnshire County Council – most of the issues would be covered by items already on the agenda.  There were no further updates at this time.

North Kesteven District Council – it was reported that Mark Taylor would be retiring at the end of May 2017.  Members wished to acknowledge the work he had put into this Committee and the Officer Working Group, and thanked him for all his work over the years.

West Lindsey District Council – some work was being carried out in relation to the One Public Estate initiative on how the authority could best utilise and collaborate more on use of public buildings.  The Chief Executive of WLDC was the Chair of the Greater Lincolnshire Board.  One aspect which was being examined was how better use of depots could be made, and there were 3-4 opportunities where a feasibility study was being carried out.  It was noted that people were very enthusiastic and findings would be reported back to the One Public Estate Board.

(Cllr R Wight (NKDC) declared an interest as he worked from One Public Estate buildings)

It was also noted that this would be Councillor Shore's last meeting as he would not be standing for re-election in May 2017.  The Chairman wished to record his thanks for all the work Cllr Shore had done on behalf of the Partnership and also in his role as Portfolio Holder for Waste and Recycling at Lincolnshire County Council.

South Holland District Council – it was reported that the Environmental Team at South Holland District Council had recently won a Team of the Year award, which was a peer award.  It was requested that congratulations from the Partnership be passed onto the team at SHDC.

A second purchase of green bins had taken place, and the introduction of charging was not discouraging members of the public from signing up to this service.  There were still people signing up for this service.  The Partnership was advised that South Holland was just moving into the renewal phase of the first year of the green waste service, and officers should soon be able to carry out some calculations on how many people had re-subscribed.  It was requested that officers report back on in June on the renewal rates for the Green Waste service.

South Kesteven District Council – in relation to green waste, it was reported that the authority had now moved to an online solution with direct debits.  Last year there had been a 70% take up of the direct debit option.  It was noted that this was a good solution and was very easy to implement.  Officers were able to help if any other districts were considering the implementing a similar system.

City of Lincoln Council – the Fixed Penalty officer had completed his first year,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10e

(To receive an update on the development of the strategic plan and any necessary decisions taken)

Consideration was given to a report which provided the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership with the first update on the preparation of the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy (JMWMS) and the expected timetable for its production.

It was hoped that this report would give the Partnership confidence that work had started on the Strategy, and it followed on from the audit recommendations which came to the Partnership in 2016.  A dedicated resource had been put in place from the beginning of February 2017, and so a month had now been spent working on the Strategy.  The first task was to produce a draft scoping report around the objectives that the Strategy should incorporate.  This was almost completed and it was hoped that it would be shared with district colleagues shortly.  The timeline and project plan was to have the Strategy in place by July 2018.

Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report and some of the points raised included the following:

·         It was suggested that there would be three key elements – the total volume, cost, and actual percentage.  There would need to be some early decisions on what percentage of recycling it would be hoped to achieve, as this would be key to the direction of the Strategy.

·         It was queried whether the 50% recycling target remained, and whether it would stay in place following Brexit.  The Partnership was advised that these sorts of questions would come out in the scoping document, and suggestions around what the target should be would be open to debate with the Partners.  It was commented that the target needed to be aspirational not just achievable.

·         There would be a need for the merging of the reality of financial pressures and the impact of trying to achieve these targets, along with the political issue of how important districts believed they were to the electorate on whether there was a move away from or an increased drive to recycle.  The majority of people still believed that Lincolnshire was ambitious with its recycling, as well as people also being confused by what could be recycled.

·         If there was uniformity across the county in terms of recycling mix, some districts would lose some of their mix, whilst others would increase it.

·         There was a need to look at the long term business plan, and it was suggested whether there was a need for a second and larger Energy from Waste facility as a recycling/recovery facility, as authorities were collecting larger amounts of materials, and it was queried how much this would cost.

·         It was queried why recycling was always considered by weight, and suggested that it should be based on the percentage that was removed from the waste stream.

·         There was a need to understand the difference between recycling and recovery.

·         It was commented that WRAP would have a major impact on targets, for example, the inclusion of food waste.  There was a need  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11a

(To receive a report which sets out the expected srategic issues which could have an effect on future waste services)

Consideration was given to a report which provided the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership with an update on the progression of the Mixed Dry Recycling (MDR) contract, including the Waste Collection Authorities (WCA) proposal to reduce the contamination levels.

It was confirmed that LCC had extended the present MDR contract with Mid UK to the 31 March 2020, due to the tight contract timescales, little opportunity to reduce the contamination before tendering, no guarantee of any responses to a new tender, the soft market testing needing to be more strategically outcome focused and to be considered in tandem with the developing Waste Strategy considerations.

Members were advised that this decision allowed the LWP more time to collaboratively manage the MDR and to achieve the best outcomes for the people of Lincolnshire.

Partners were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         Concerns were raised from a partnership angle, as it was believed that the Partnership had agreed a process where strategic decisions would be discussed by the LWP before going back to individual authorities.  However, it was commented that the Partnership had a long discussion at the last meeting, where it was concluded that it would be better to delay the tender for a new contract.  At this time, the districts still had a problem with contamination and the County Council was required to deal with the waste as presented.

·         The longer that no action was taken on contamination, the harder it would be to change people's behaviour in the future.

·         The costs associated with disposing of contaminated recycling and how they were calculated was discussed.  It was requested that a report be brought to a future meeting which explained what all the fees were and how they were calculated.

·         Concerns were expressed regarding the possibility that the approach of the LWP to contamination in dry recycling might be seen to be driven by short-term financial implications and EfW capacity issues rather than the need to optimise recyclable material quality.  In the longer term, when re-tendering the contract, unless contamination levels were significantly reduced there was a significant risk in two areas – the likelihood of attracting tenders at all and the potential for a very high gate fee.

·         Partners were advised that the decision regarding the MDR contract was an operational decision, and now the Partnership had 3 years to look at the issues around contamination and start to deal with them.

·         It was noted that mixed dry recyclables did not go to the Energy from Waste facility.

·         There was an increased drive towards commercialisation.  South Holland had a partner council whose view of the world was very different to theirs and were a commercially minded council, and the danger was that they could become so focused on money that the bigger picture was lost.  There was a need to find a balance.  

·         There was a need for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11b

(To receive an update on the current situation in relation to clearance of road debris following a road traffic collision)

The Partnership received an update on the situation in relation to the clearance of road debris following a road traffic collision.

It was commented that it was understood that this situation had been ongoing for around three years, and it was important that all partner authorities took the same or similar approach.

The Partnership was advised that this issue had been discussed at the Officer Working Group.  County Council officers had been liaising through the Highways Authority to get a definitive answer, as there were variations in actions taken amongst Districts.  However, a response has still not been received from highways officers.

It was confirmed that whatever actions District Councils were taking which suited their costs, the County Council was happy for them to continue doing.  A lot of work had been done trying to resolve this issue over the last 18 months.  However, it was noted that this was a complex issue, as there was a difference of legal opinion.

It was requested that a written report on this issue be brought to the June meeting of the Partnership, and that the Chief Operating Officer should attend to present the report.  It was also queried whether the Highways Portfolio Holder could be asked to attend for this item as well.

RESOLVED

            That a written report be brought to next meeting of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership scheduled to be held on 8 June 2017.

(To receive an update from West Lindsey District Council in relation to the bid which was submitted to WRAP for funding to develop business cases to work towards implementing changes to collection regimes)

The Strategic Manager, Trading and Environmental Operations at West Lindsey District Council provided the Partnership with an opportunity to consider the agreement for provision of support to Lincolnshire Waste Partnership by WRAP. 

Partners were advised that a bid had been worked up and submitted to WRAP following the last meeting of the Partnership, which had since been approved.  It was also noted that the programme had been heavily oversubscribed, but the LWP's bid was complimented by WRAP as the benefit of providing this support to a group of authorities rather than a single authority could be seen.

It was noted that there was no obligation on any Authority to roll out any of the recommendations that were identified.

The Chairman thanked the Strategic Manager, Trading and Environmental Operations for putting this bid together on behalf of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership.

RESOLVED

            That the Agreement for provision of support to Lincolnshire Waste Partnership by WRAP be supported and signed on behalf of the LWP

(To receive an update on the performance of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership's KPI's)

Consideration was given to a report which outlined a proposal for the provision of regular data regarding performance of the waste service at a Lincolnshire level.

It was reported that waste officers had been considering how to keep the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership informed on some of the key areas of waste performance so as to inform debate on strategic waste issues.  Two performance indicators had been identified:

1.    Total recycling, reuse and composting – this remained a key performance indicator due to the existence of the 50% statutory target (by 2020) and the 55% target in the current Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy.  It was suggested that it would be useful to break down the performance against this indicator in 2 ways – by waste stream (i.e. reuse/recycling and composting) and by collection methodology (i.e. kerbside collection and HWRC's).

2.    Total residual waste – this indicator was considered particularly important in relation to the available capacity for waste disposal.  This took account of changes in waste per household and waste growth due to growth in households/population.  It was suggested that this information should be broken down into 3 categories – waste disposed of through the EfW; waste disposed of at landfill; and waste disposed of from the dry recycling contract (contamination).

It was suggested that it would be helpful for the Partnership to receive this information every six months.  It was commented that the more data that could be fed into the Partnership the better.  It would be interesting to know when the recycling rates started to drop and how quickly they dropped.  It was also suggested whether it would of benefit to look at if there had been any key events that may have contributed to the drop in recycling.

RESOLVED

1.    That the performance indicators presented be accepted

2.    That a report be brought to the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership every six months.

(To consider and approve the revised Terms of Reference for the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership)

Consideration was given to a report which recommended a new set of Terms of Reference (ToR) for adoption by the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership in order to address recommendation 8 from the Audit report.

Members were provided with the opportunity to discuss the revised Terms of Reference and the following points were raised:

·         It was suggested that a paragraph regarding a quorum should be included in the new ToR and it was agreed that it should remain at 5 elected members.

·         It was thought that only elected members should be able to cast a vote, and it was not appropriate for officers to do this on a member's behalf.

RESOLVED

1.    That the revised Terms of Reference be adopted subject to the above amendments.

2.    That the amended Terms of Reference be circulated to the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership in advance of the next meeting.