Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Y Stevens (Boston Borough Council), Councillor M Head (North Kesteven District Council), Emily Spicer and Charlotte Paine (South Kesteven District Council)

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

RESOLVED

            That the minutes of the meeting held on 21 November 2019 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record subject to it being noted that Councillor O Bierley (West Lindsey District Council) was in attendance.

Each partner authority was provided with the opportunity to update the rest of the Partnership on any developments or updates which may be of interest to the Partnership.  The following was reported:

South Kesteven District Council

In relation to the food waste trial, the headlines were that it was still performing well in terms of tonnage and removing waste from the residual waste stream.  Participation was still good.

The authority was moving into its green waste collection season, this made a significant contribution to the amount of recycling collected.

Operationally, things had been going well, there would be partnership working in terms of sites and transfer stations and work with One Public Estate was underway.

City of Lincoln Council

There had been no changes to services, the focus was currently on the renewal of the service delivery contract, which was due in September 2022.  It was hoped that an update could be provided to the Partnership at the next meeting.

West Lindsey District Council

There were currently issues around fleet maintenance and the contract was moving forward.  At the Annual Council meeting the Leader had announced that there would be two extra green waste collections in the year and some money had been dedicated to an education campaign for members and officer to visit every primary school in West Lindsey to talk about recycling.

It was also highlighted that Earth Day was due to be held towards the end of April, and an open day would be held at Caistor Town Hall which would include a questions time session.  It was a further opportunity to engage with residents on recycling issues, and if the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership wished to be involved, that would be welcomed.  The Chairman requested that the dates be sent to him when finalised.

East Lindsey District Council

The Council had taken delivery of its first vehicle of the new fleet.  There would be an increase to 20 frontline RCV's for the new rounds which would come into place on 6 April 2020.  The Council had increased its number of vehicles and put new rounds in place for all residents.

All households would receive a poster of what could go into the recycling bin.  Residents would also be directed to the website, where there was now a drop down menu for the materials which are most contaminating for recycling. 

Operation Clean Sweep was also taking place, and the direct was part of the SCRAP fly tipping campaign.

Boston Borough Council

The vehicle maintenance contract was out to tender at the moment, it was due to expire in December 2020.  Officers were busy making sure that the contract was in place for when the new fleet arrived in November/December 2020.

It was hoped that Boston would be next in line for Operation Clean Sweep, and the district was also part of the SCRAP fly tipping campaign.

There would be some enforcement monitoring, but this would be cost neutral.

The paper and card trial had been really positive, and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21c

(To receive a report by John Coates)

It had been anticipated that a second round of consultations from government would be released in the early part of the year.  However, this was now expected in quarter three.

It was commented that if the government was considering the introduction of food waste collection, would this decision be made by 2023, and members were advised that it was expected that by 2023 this would have been implemented.  It was noted that the government would be expecting local authorities to be planning for this now.

The LWP had tried food waste collection with one of its partners, which had demonstrated the challenges which would be experienced.  It was thought that this experience could be used to challenge government.  It was noted that the senior officer working group was aware of the issue and were started a separate work stream to look at the collection and disposal of food waste.

RESOLVED

            That the update be noted.

(To receive a report by John Coates, Lincolnshire County Council)

Consideration was given to a report which outlined the rationale for the production of a Lincolnshire Waste Partnership Annual Report, which would be a public facing document and set out progress made during the year against the objectives of the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy which was published in January 2019.  It was noted that this document would be reviewed periodically, and was an opportunity to remind the audience of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership's successes and key messages for the future.  It was the intention to circulate the draft report following the meeting, and the finalised document would be presented to the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership for adoption at the AGM in July.

RESOLVED

            That the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership approves the production of an annual report to be presented at its July AGM each year.  Once approved the report would be publicly available as a printable document.

(To receive a report and presentation from Ady Selby, West Lindsey District Council)

A report and presentation was received from the Assistant Director of Operations at West Lindsey District Council which updated the Partnership on West Lindsey's involvement with the S.C.R.A.P. fly-tipping campaign.

It was reported that on 12 February 2019, PCC Marc Jones hosted a fly-tipping summit to investigate what could be done to address this issue.  Representatives from all of the agencies who attended signed a pledge to seek ways to work together in order to tackle the rising trend.

At the July 2019 meeting of the Partnership, a presentation was received from the Chairman of the Hertfordshire Fly-Tipping Group which covered a number of topics, including a summary of the Hertfordshire Waste Partnership's S.C.R.A.P fly-tipping campaign.  This was well received by the Partnership and West Lindsey volunteered to lead on a similar project within Lincolnshire.

The Partnership was updated on some of the activities which had taken place so far which included:

·         A leaflet highlighting the campaign had been sent to over 42,000 households

·         Two RCV's had been wrapped with campaign posters

·         'Days of Action' had taken place on four separate days to stop and search vehicles – 85% of the drivers asked to produce a licence were able to.

Members of the Partnership 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:

·         Illegal waste carriers were often also involved in Modern Day Slavery and so it was important that the response was multi-agency. 

·         In future, a more targeted approach would be taken in relation to stop and search of vehicles, and would relate to potential illegal waste sites or known waste carriers without licences.

·         It was commented that it should not be underestimated how quickly information could spread within criminal circles and so it was important to rotate sites.

·         It was suggested that one of the main issues was that people did not know what an authentic waste carrier licence looked like, and it was queried whether there was an easy way to educate the public on this.  Members of the public could either check on the Environment Agency website whether they were licenced, or they could ask the carrier for transfer noted from other jobs that day.

·         It was highlighted that officers were aware that people who did have licences were also fly-tipping, and so were in talks with the Environment Agency about how to deal with this as well.

·         There was no intelligence from the Environment Agency that there was fly-tipping being carried out by criminal gangs in West Lindsey.

·         Businesses were being forced to deal with hazardous waste being fly-tipped on their premises.

RESOLVED

            That the report be noted.

(To receive a report from John Coates, Lincolnshire County Council)

The Lincolnshire Waste Partnership received a report which outlined information in relation to the future needs for waste and recycling infrastructure.  The report provided an overview of activities which were planned for the future.  It was likely that there would be some major policy changes in the future, and some long terms challenges around housing growth.  There was a need to move recycling out of the residual stream, and residual waste from the recycling stream.  There would be a need for infrastructure changes in order to keep up with policy changes.  In terms of recycling centres and transfer stations, it was noted that operationally most of the treatment of waste was being done in Lincolnshire.

RESOLVED

That Lincolnshire Waste Partnership note the actions being taken with regards to infrastructure assets required to support the objectives of the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy:

1.    The relocation of Skegness and Kirkby-on-Bain Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC);

2.    Identification of potential sites for future anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities;

3.    Identification of a potential site to the south of Lincoln for a new HWRC and waste transfer station (WTS) (and AD facility if appropriate);

4.    Involvement of Partnership members in the One Public Estate programme;

5.    On-going liaison with Defra as part of the consultations for Resources and Waste Strategy (RAWS) to assist with planning for future infrastructure assets in Lincolnshire.

(To receive a report from Councillor Peter Moseley, South Kesteven District Council)

Consideration was given to a report which provided an update on the food waste collection trial to date.  This followed the first update at the eight month point on 7 March 2019 and the end of the year 1 report at the 11 July 2019 meeting.

It was reported that 4,000 households across South Kesteven were participating in the trial.  Communication had been key in the success of the trial so far.  The aim had been to explore how successful the district could be at separating food waste into a usable product.  The more successful it could be, then the more money could be made which would offset the cost of providing the service.

In year two of the trial, the authority had been looking at multiple ways of how food waste could be collected.  The possibility of using a dedicated support vehicle had been explored, as it would not need to run next to the RCV.  However, this would provide complications in that it would only be able to collect the food that was set out, but it would be able to collect a greater volume in one day and it could be a different day to the bin collection.

Getting engagement and participation from residents was vital, but it was hard work to ensure they remained engaged and participating.  It was important that the messages were kept consistent, and were supported.  It had also been established that caddy liners were essential for continuing participation, as those authorities that withdrew provision of liners found that participation dropped off significantly.

It was noted that there would be specific challenges around having dedicated collection vehicles.  It was expected that there would be a need for a mixed collection method, due to the rurality of the district.  It would not be known what the best solution would be until it was modelled for a larger area.  In urban areas, dedicated collection vehicles would be very efficient.  Rural and semi-rural areas would be more of a challenge.  Value for money was linked to volumes collected, and so if the costs of collection could be reduced be being as efficient as possible that would be beneficial.

A reduction in people participating had been expected.  However, whilst a slight drop in participation had been seen, but not a drop in volumes collected.  There were ways that this could be addressed, and promotion of the 'reduce' message had not been as effective as it could be.  In other locations, participation had remained the same but volumes had reduced as people's behaviour changed.

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 received during discussion included the following:

·         The message so far had been to recycle rather than reuse or reduce.  There were plans to do some communications work around the reduce message.

·         It was queried whether there was a need to do anything as a Partnership to make  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

(To receive a report from Rachel Stamp, Lincolnshire Waste Partnership Programme Delivery Manager)

The Partnership received an update in relation to progress against the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy.  It was reported that there would be a summary document at each meeting of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership.

The two stream trial (separate paper and card collection) was going really well and thanks were extended to all partners, crews and staff for making it successful.  Work would continue on improving the quality of the mixed dry recycling.

In terms of communications, partners had officially started 'Waste Wednesday' where each Wednesday, a co-ordinated message would be put out from each district on a particular topic.  Once a month, officers or members would be appearing on 'Facebook Live', the video the previous day had received 7000 views.  It was thought that this was a more cost effective way of reaching people.

It was noted that officers were increasingly being asked by schools to go in and work with them.

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:

• There had been a lot of work regarding the recycling side of things, but there was still work which needed to be done in relation to reduce.
• Another message which needed to be promoted was the 'right thing in the right bin'
• One member commented that they had attended a conference recently where there had been a big presentation on a return scheme for plastic bottles.  However, it was thought that this message was flawed, and instead people should be encouraged to not use plastic bottles.
• There was a need to change people's habits in relation to reducing waste.

RESOLVED

That the action plan be noted and the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership receive ongoing updates of performance against the action plan at future meetings.

(To receive a report from Matthew Michell, Lincolnshire County Council)

Consideration was given to a report which provided information in relation to the performance measures associated with the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership.  It was reported that at previous meetings the Partnership had discussed how best progress against strategic objectives could be measured. 

Two measures were agreed at the last meeting for the first topic of fulfilling the Waste Hierarchy (promoting recycling and waste minimisation respectively):

·         Recycling rate of "waste from households" (percentage) and

·         Household Waste Collection (kilograms per household)

The forecast for 2019/20 was that performance would be slightly better than the previous year, and it was hoped that the recycling target would improve.

In terms of waste minimisation, the message still needed to be promoted to reduce the amount of waste produced.

In terms of green waste, it was thought that the volumes collected would be an increase on the previous year.  It was noted that composting contributed 21% to the recycling total.

One message which really needed to be communicated to the public was how little of Lincolnshire's waste actually went to landfill, as a significant proportion of the population still believed that the majority of waste went to landfill.

In terms of contamination, it was important to know how much contamination there was, but it was also important to know what the contamination was, so this could influence the communications messages being put out to make them more targeted.  It was noted that there would be information in the annual report in relation to the type of contamination being found.

In terms of the customer friendliness topic, input from partners would be appreciated on how this should be measured.  In terms of being able to benchmark data, there was a proposal to ask the public a number of questions.  It was queried whether members were happy for all partners to ask the same questions, including questions about collections, household waste sites, and would districts be willing to ask these questions, or should they just ask questions about the services they deliver.  It was commented that people could associate services such as household waste sites with districts and then direct complaints about them to the districts.  It was suggested that one way around this would be that the questions were being asked on behalf of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership, and then the Partnership would be responsible for dealing with the outcomes.

It was suggested that the term contamination was confusing for residents, as some materials were recyclable in other areas.  It was noted that this was why it was important to carry out analysis of the contamination, so that clearer messages could be provided to the public.

It was noted that the Lincolnshire Leaders and Chief Executives had agreed to hold a range of engagement events, and if there were specific questions the Partnership had, they were happy to combine these with their own.

RESOLVED

1.    Waste Hierarchy – that the LWP notes the charts and commentary provided

2.    Contamination – that the LWP notes the plan to assess  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

(To receive a report from Democratic Services)

That the wording of the terms of reference in relation to the inclusion of an officer and elected member representative of the Greater Lincolnshire Leaders and Chief Executives as members of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership be confirmed as follows:

The Lincolnshire Waste Partnership will also include one elected member and one officer representing the Greater Lincolnshire Leaders and Chief Executives group, who will be the strategic lead for waste matters.

Consideration was given to the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership's Forward Plan which set out items for due to be considered by the Partnership at its forthcoming meetings.  It was noted the item on Defra consultations would be moved to later in the year.

RESOLVED

            That the Forward Plan be noted.