Agenda and minutes

Were received from Councillors North, McKenzie and Weeks.

Members are invited to declare any personal or prejudicial interests and to state the nature of any such interest on any items on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

To notify the Board of any items of business authorised by the Chairman on the grounds of urgency.

There were no urgent items of business declared.

To receive the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Waste Disposal Board held on 10 January 2007.

The minutes of the meeting of the Joint Waste Disposal Board held on 10 January 2007 were accepted by the Board, and signed by the Chairman.

(Project Director)

The Project Director introduced Oliver Burt, who had been appointed as the Project Manager.

The Board considered a report which provided an update on project activities since the last meeting on 10 January 2007.

The Project Manager updated the Board on a number of issues.  In particular, he mentioned that there had not been any significant changes to the way that the facilities at Bracknell and Reading were being run.  The area of most significant change since the last meeting had been the introduction of a new bottle bank schedule.  This had made a significant impact to Bracknell Forest in particular on the way that collections were made.  The contractor had put in place a schedule for bottle banks.  Although this had taken time to settle down, a good level of a service was now being achieved.

In relation to the Monthly Performance Report for January 2007, the Project Manager informed the Board that although it looked disappointing with columns of zero’s, this was because facilities had not yet been built.  The narrative was interesting, in that Section 4 seemed to show that nothing had happened, but there had been an issue of getting bottle banks emptied.  The Project Manager had asked for the true picture to be shown in the narrative in future.

The Board was informed that damage to bottle banks were covered by specific clauses in the contract.  WRG were responsible for the provision and maintenance of bottle banks, and were obliged to repair them, even if the damage had been caused by vandalism.  A number of new sites were being looked at which would be fed into the contract, and an update given at the next meeting

Although it was envisaged that the Board could look at the charts at future meetings as a management tool, there were concerns that they did not reflect the true situation.  The Project Director explained that as it had not been accurate, the Project Manager had rejected the January report, and he was confident that future reports would be accurate and not misrepresent the situation.  The Board felt that the current level of details was appropriate, especially at this early stage of the project, and that future reports could be circulated to members by e-mail.  For the future, the possibility of producing a three month summary could be looked at.

Although the project had only been in place for less than a month by the end of 2006, the Project Director had completed a quarterly reconciliation up to the end of December.  It had been found that a number of subcontractors had not provided the information required.  This had now been corrected and he was confident that they would meet year end targets.

In relation to LATS (Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme), it was likely the project would have surplus of them because of steps taken so far.  A decision on whether to keep or trade LATS credits could be decided annually.  The next trading windows for LATS would be in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

(Project Director)

The Board considered a report which provided an update on progress since the last meeting on 10 January 2007.

The Project Director informed the Board that there were two work streams, the operations side and the delivery of expected assets, and that regular meetings were being held with WRG on each.  Work on the Smallmead development had started one week late, but was now ahead of schedule.  It was hoped to hold a ceremony to mark the work carried out so far, as this had been the only PFI signed in 2006 that work had started on, and should be held up as an example of good practice.

There had been a few issues with the Longshot Lane Planning Application, and it did not go to the Planning Committee meeting on 22 March 2007.  A new, substantially improved Planning Application had now been submitted, which would go before the Planning Committee on 21 June 2007.

RESOLVED that the progress made in the areas of the EPC Contract and Planning since the last meeting of the Board be noted.

(Project Director)

To confirm the date of the annual meeting.

RESOLVED that the Annual Meeting of the Joint Waste Disposal Board would now be held at 6.00pm on Wednesday 5 September 2007, and be hosted by Wokingham Borough Council, and that the meeting of 20 June 2007 would be hosted by Bracknell Forest Borough Council.