Councillor David Edgar (Cabinet Member for Environment) gave a presentation on the creation of an in-house service for the integrated delivery of the waste, recycling and cleansing functions within Tower.  Dan Jones (Divisional Director, Public Realm) and Mark Griffin (Waste Mobilisation Advisor) were also present to provide an update and respond to questions.

The Committee then asked several questions about the Service and the points raised are summarised below:

The Committee

• Asked about the financial risks of this process as councillors get a significant number of complaints on waste, recycling and cleansing, therefore it would be good to know what improvements that we should expect to see;
• Was informed that the Strategy gives areas of improvements e.g. the collection of household waste as per the schedule and a depot that functions properly and effectively.  In addition, (i) the “Modular Buildings” at the depot are an interim measure intended to improve the work areas and staff accommodation; (ii) Regarding employees may be protected under the transfer of the service back in house, LBTH are awaiting the information from Veolia’s July Payroll which will provide LBTH with a set of data in accordance with the requirements of the transfer process;
• Was concerned that between now and the 31^st March 2019 there might be a deterioration in the service provide;
• Noted that LBTH wants to see improvements in the Service and have asked for and received the level of detail that LBTH have an effective overview of performance.  Whereas in the past LBTH had not been given the information that was needed to evaluate the service and had the required IT software to effectively gather the data to scrutinise the Service;
• Noted that LBTH (i) is building effective relationships with the staff that will transfer over; (ii) recognises the need to improve Service with better vehicles; (iii) acknowledges the need to ensure there are supervisors to monitor the performance; and (iv) will have Street Scene Neighbourhood Managers who will have oversight of how things are going in a particular neighbourhood.
• Noted the latest monitoring statistics will be provided once they are available in August.
• Wanted to see more meaningful figures on performance and how issues have been rectified (e.g. incomplete rounds);
• Noted that there had been a week slippage on making improvements at the Depot as costs had been higher than anticipated and therefore additional resources had to be allocated to the budget;
• Commented that Councils vehicle fleet is old, and needs replacing urgently and wished to know when the fleet would become as carbon neutral;
• Noted that LBTH are ensuring that future purchases of vehicles will meet the current standards and deliver the expected level.  Whilst going forward the Service is looking at the developments within the market for capable Hybrids; Electric and Hydrogen powered vehicles.  In addition, the Council wants to ensure that there is the necessary supporting infrastructure for the vehicle fleet to ensure the Council has a practical and well-regarded service.

As a result of discussions  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7