Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that Councillor Mrs Hayes be elected Chairman of the Joint Waste Disposal Board Management Committee for the 2017/18 Municipal Year.

RESOLVED that Councillor Terry be appointed Vice-chairman of the Joint Waste Disposal Board Management Committee for the 2016/17 Municipal Year.

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Any Member with an affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting and must not participate in discussion of the matter or vote on the matter unless granted a dispensation by the Monitoring officer or by the Governance and Audit Committee.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Joint Waste Disposal Board held on 21 April 2017.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Waste Disposal Board held on the 21 April 2017 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Arising on the minutes it was noted:

Minute 31 – The Chair raised concerns with the Joint Mineral and Waste plan for Central and Eastern Berkshire as the principal focus for re3 was on waste rather than minerals. It was also raised that the Grundons Lakeside Energy from Waste facility, though geographically outside of the re3 plan area was very important and that the Board needed to keep an eye on the progress on the plan.

Minute 32 – Councillor Iain McCracken refreshed the new Members of the Board on the residents ID card which was an Ecard held by Bracknell Residents. This could be used for a number of functions such as for library and leisure centre access and would be a good solution for  residents to use to access the recycling centres as the card displayed the residents picture therefore would be a good idea to pursue. Wokingham Borough Council were pursuing a number of smart methods as part of there 21^st Century Technology project and Reading Borough Council were also currently looking into different smart methods. They had looked at the Bracknell Forest Ecard but felt it was too costly and needed to find best value for money. Councillor McCracken would feed this back to his Director.

The word “considers” in the resolution at ii would be amended to “agreed”

Minute 36 – Grace Bradbrook had joined re3 as the Principal Finance Officer. Grace was a qualified accountant who had previously worked for Reading Borough Council. The post had been advertised nationally on Jobsgopublic.

There were no urgent items of business.

To receive a report briefing the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on progress in the delivery of the re3 Joint Waste PFI Contract.

The Board received a progress report briefing them on progress in the delivery of the re3 Joint Waste PFI Contract.

Hampshire Services were undertaking the work on the Joint Mineral and Waste plan for Central and Eastern Berkshire and had completed the call for sites. The second phase would be gathering information of the local areas ahead of proposals being made; this was important as Hampshire Services were not local to the area and needed to be up to speed.  Although the Grundons site was located in Slough, who were not part of the joint plan, this needed to be captured in the plan as it influenced the other Boroughs. Self-sufficiency is an important objective for the Joint Plan and, in view of increasing housing growth; this was an important consideration for re3.

The Litter Strategy for England had been published in April 2017 and had referred the intention of Government to review the conditions of access arrangements and charging for certain types of non household waste. Government was pushing ahead with this review. The outcome of the Government’s consultation and their response was still awaited. It was hoped that the outcome would be clearer.

Appendix one of the report was the Contract Support Appraisal which will be undertaken on an annual basis in order to monitor performance. The Appraisal had been shared with the contactor.

RESOLVED that the Members note the contents of this report.

To consider the following motion:

That pursuant to Regulation 4 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) Regulations 2012 and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of items 10 and 11 which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972:

(3) Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person

(including the authority holding that information)

RESOLVED that pursuant to Regulation 4 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) Regulations 2012, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of item 8 and 9 which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972:

(3)   Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person.

To brief the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on current recycling performance and the potential for the re3 councils to achieve 50% reuse and recycling by 2020.

Members received a report and a presentation given by Oliver Burt, briefing them on the current recycling performance and the potential for the re3 councils to achieve 50% reuse and recycling by 2020.

The report also updated the Board on the specific work streams being undertaken by the respective waste collection teams.

The Board requested that a report be produced regarding the differences in performance by other authorities, including in Wales, to help Members gain a better understanding of what is required for the highest recycling performance.

Reading Borough Council would share their policy documents regarding waste in permitted development with Bracknell Forest Council.

Visits to Grundons Lakeside Waste for Energy would be arranged for Members that haven’t yet visited the site.

RESOLVED that:

i.              The Board reaffirms its commitment for achieving not less than 50% from the re3 facilities and doing all it can within available budgets to achieve their individual 50% targets.

ii.             Members note the potential positive performance and financial implications of the service developments contained within this report.

iii.            Members welcome the production of appropriate business cases for the service developments described herein as soon as they are available.

To receive a report describing the proposal to include pots, tubs and trays (PTT) and cartons (such as Tetrapak cartons) within the material processed for recycling at the re3 MRF.

Oliver Burt presented a report describing the proposals to include pots, tubs and trays (PTT) and cartons (such as Tetrapak cartons) within the materials processed for recycling at the re3 MRF.

Within the report the likely costs and benefits of the initiative were set out.

Members requested that any business case be approved and agreed by all Board Members prior to any implementation.

RESOLVED that:

i.              Members note the likely capital cost, estimated benefits and operational implications of the proposal to process PTT and cartons for recycling.

ii.             Members authorise officers of the re3 Senior Management Group to conclude negotiations with FCC and implement the changes and communications described in this report.

To receive a report briefing the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on the marketing and communications work being carried out to support re3 objectives.

The Board received a report from Anna Fowler, re3 Marketing and Communications Officer, briefing them on the marketing and communications work being carried out to support the re3 objectives.

A series of proposed recycling campaign designs had been presented to the Board in the JWDB meeting in January 2017. The board had expressed reservations around the images and messages presented in these designs and asked for them to be re worked.

The reworked posters were displayed within the report, with one amendment being made by the Board to the wording so the message on the poster  would read: “Every time we as residents recycle, we save money”

RESOLVED that:

i.              The Board note the contents of this report.

ii.             The Board approve the recommended marketing and communications activity.

To receive a report briefing the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on the Partnership’s current financial position.

The Board received a report briefing them on the Partnerships current financial position from the first quarter of 2017/18 onwards.

If members requested more detailed information, they were advised that they should contact Oliver Burt.

The Annual Financial Statement would be presented to the Board at its October 2017 meeting.

RESOLVED that Members note the Partnership’s financial position for the year to date.

The date of the next Joint Waste Disposal Board is 11am on  Friday 13 October 2017 at Smallmead Household Waste Recycling Centre.

The date of the next Joint Waste Disposal Board was 11am on Friday 13 October 2017 at Smallmead Household Waste Recycling Centre.

Councillor Liz Terry had been asked a question by a West Berkshire Resident at a Reading Full Council meeting to whether the Board would be open to consider changing the decision which didn’t allow West Berkshire residents to use the Smallmead Recycling Centre.

The Board discussed the issue and stated that their decisions hadn’t changed since it was agreed at the Board Meeting in October 2016, as costs of West Berkshire residents using the site wouldn’t be able to be covered.

A press response would be drafted and circulated for approval.