Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor P Burley (North Kesteven District Council) and the Environment Agency.

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

There were no partner updates.

(To receive a report by Matthew Michell, Senior Commissioning Officer (Waste), which provides the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership to consider the final revised version of the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy)

The Lincolnshire Waste Partnership received a report by Matthew Michell, Senior Commissioning Officer (Waste) which provided the opportunity to consider the Revised Draft of the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy (JMWMS).

It was reported that the Partnership had received at its July meeting, a report which summarised the feedback received on the Consultation Draft of the JMWMS.  At this point the LWP approved the revision of the JMWMS as proposed in the report presented to them.  Consequently, it was now proposed that the LWP endorse the version presented at this meeting, subject to any final agreed amendments as ready to be presented to each LWP partner council for formal adoption.

Partners were invited to make comment on the draft Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy presented to them, and some of the comments made included the following:

·         West Lindsey commented that it was a good strategy, and saw no problems with it as it did not commit the council to anything financially, just to a direction and way forward for waste management in the future.

·         Concerns were raised regarding the wording of Objective 3, which stated "To introduce separate food waste collections where technically, environmentally and economically practicable" as it was felt that the change from 'To consider…..' to 'To introduce……' would have significant implications for the district councils.  It was noted that this objective had been amended as there had been feedback that the objectives were not strong enough.  However, following discussion there was no objection to the wording being slightly amended to read "To consider the introduction of separate food waste collections where technically, environmentally and economically practicable'.

·         Members were advised that there would be an exercise to determine where it would be suitable to carry out separate food waste collections and whether there would be any negative consequences.

·         It was commented that South Kesteven District Council was fully involved with the food waste trial and was committed to getting the right answer for the Partnership as a whole.

·         It was commented that there was a need to make definitive statements as part of this Strategy in order to be able to ask the public to get behind it and support it.

·         It was noted that food waste collection was being looked at by central government, and there was a need for Lincolnshire to be ahead of the game in the event that the separate collection of food waste was required.  It was acknowledge that costs could escalate, but if the Partnership started looking at the issue sooner rather than later ways to bring the costs down and make them bearable could be found.  It was unlikely that there would be any additional funding from central government to implement food waste collection.

·         It was felt that there needed to be more emphasis on innovation as a thread throughout the strategy and this would be fundamental to how things were done in the future.  However, the general consensus was that innovation already featured in various places, and would be considered  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.