Issue - meetings

The Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability presented the Waste Shared Service Governance Report which set the scene for the future of waste and street cleansing in partnership with North Herts District Council. He said there was a recommended to support a cross party joint working group with North Herts to look at the strategic direction and design of the contract which will come into effect from 2025.

Councillor McAndrew said that an aligned service made it more attractive to the market when out for tender and in the coming years, there will be significant legislative changes affecting waste management and it was prudent that the contract and the service was fit for purpose and sustainable for the future.

Councillor Redfern asked if the Executive Member knew what the cross party working group would look like or if it was too early to say.

Councillor McAndrew confirmed it was too early to say.

Councillor Redfern asked if Members would have an opportunity to scrutinise the group’s recommendations.

Councillor McAndrew said the recommendation would go through the committee cycle.

Councillor McAndrew proposed, and Councillor Buckmaster seconded a motion supporting the recommendations in the report. On being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – That (A) the comments from Overview and Scrutiny Committee, as shown in Appendix B, be considered and the recommended actions endorsed;
 

(B)       the new overarching aim of the shared services and principles outlined in 3.10 and 3.12 be agreed;

(C)       The formation of a joint cross party working group be endorsed. The terms of reference for which are outlined in Appendix A and the outline work programme described in 3.19;

(D)      the future options be explored and agreed for governance of the Shared Waste Service, including consideration of a joint committee consisting of representation by both East Herts Council and North Herts Council.

The Head of Operations submitted a report inviting Members to consider options around the governance of the Waste Shared Service, in order to support future partnership working and service resilience.

The Head of Operations set out the history of the Waste Shared Service with North Herts Council and said that a joint contract had been awarded to Urbaser in May 2018. She stated that the Council had looked at a number of issues to achieve savings.

The Head of Operations said that the time had come to look at contract renewal and one of the key elements of the service review led by the Waste Shared Service Manager was the in relation to efficiencies. She said that the next contract needed to ensure to ensure that services were more aligned and administration functions needed to be slicker and more efficient.

Members were advised that a key element of the governance going forward was how joint decisions were made across the two authorities. The Head of Operations said that North Herts had agreed to a chargeable garden waste service and reminded Members that East Herts had introduced this in January 2021.

Members were advised that the aim of the report was to seek permission to explore what joint decision making might look like to reduce risks whilst ensuring that each authority had the independence to act in the interests of the two authorities.

The Head of Operations said that the recommendation included the setting up of a cross party joint Member working group to consider what the design of the new service specification could look like for the next contract.

Councillor Goldspink expressed her view about how different the two Councils were in terms of standards and the charges. She said that she was fully supportive of the recommendation for a working party to bring the two Councils closer together.

Councillor Wyllie read out the pre submitted question from Councillor Drake in terms of whether more could be done regarding refuse collection and improving communication between the Council and residents, for example by letting residents know (via text), that their refuse might be collected on a different date if, for example, some works were being undertaken in a road which would impact on the ability of the Council to collect on a normal basis.

The Head of Operations said that she had discussed this with the Head of Communications, Strategy and Policy and there would be a further discussion as to what could be done in terms of communication. She said that there currently was no text message service and sometimes emails were sent out regarding the brown bin service collection. Members were advised that subject to financial constraints, Officers would explore options of what could be brought with the shared service going forward.

The Head of Operations referred to the topic of social media and the website being updated as the standard means of communication platforms. She said that the matter of specific customised text messages would need to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 390