Agenda and minutes

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

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or an affected 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.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Joint Waste Disposal Board held on 21 March 2013.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Joint waste Disposal Board held on 14 March 2013 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

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

There were no urgent items of business.

To receive a report providing an update on the progress made by the RE3 public finance initiative since the last meeting of the Joint Waste Disposal Board on 14 March 2012.

The Board received a report providing an update on progress made since its last meeting on 21 March 2013. 

It was noted that the projected overall under spend currently remained at £1.1 million however the split between the local authorities had changed, with Bracknell Forest and Reading’s under spends increasing to approximately £51,000 and £41,000 respectively and Wokingham’s under spend decreasing by approximately £107,000.  Changes that were attributed to the differences between forecast and provisional tonnage within Quarter 4.  The final year end figures would be circulated to the Board once they had been finalised.

The Board questioned what effect the Wokingham Borough Council’s changes in the charging regime for green waste collection had had on the figures and cautioned that whilst savings may have been made at a local level these could be offset by the extra costs incurred as green waste was sent to landfill.

The Board expressed concern about the queues that were building up in the vicinity of Longshot Lane HWRC and the effect that this was having on the traders operating in the adjacent commercial units.  It was noted that under the terms of the contract there were procedures in place to help alleviate traffic problems at busy times Officers had met with traders in order to try and manage expectations.  The possibility of putting in new access roads had been explored but this had been found to be not possible.  It was expected that the Operator would submit a revised planning application to enable changes to be made to the site so that an increased number of vehicles would be able to queue onsite in the Autumn.

It was noted that that the workshop session scheduled for Board members, on the 13 June at 10am at Smallmead HWRC, to look at the future of the PFI contract and how it might be taken forward would provide the Board with an opportunity to raise any concerns that they might have for example how the projected numbers of new housing proposed across the three local authority areas would impact on the HWRC.

The Board noted the report.

To agree dates for future meetings of the Joint Waste Disposal Board.

RESOLVED that future meetings of the Joint Waste Disposal Board would take place on the following dates:

Thursday 5 September at 10am, Longshot Lane HWRC (Annual General Meeting)

Thursday 12 December at 10am, Wokingham Borough Council

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 8 and 9 which involve 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.

RESOLVED that pursuant to Regulation 21 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) Regulations 2000 and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of items 8 and 9 which involve 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 receive a report providing an update on elements of the re3 Waste Public Finance Initiative Contract.

The Board received a report providing an update on the progress being made towards addressing Members’ requests for greater understanding of various components of the re3 waste PFI contract.

It was agreed that any observations on Phase 1 of this piece of work would be discussed in detail at the workshop on 13 June 2013.

The Board received a report providing an update on the progress made in the ongoing dispute between the re3 council’s and the PFI Contractor since the last Joint Waste Disposal Board meeting on 14 March 2013.  

The Board discussed the progress made since their last meeting, the proposed next steps and the potential outcomes and implications of the dispute.

RESOLVED that:

1. The progress made since the Joint Waste Disposal Board meeting held on 14 March 2013 be noted
2. The Adjudication Argument appended to the report of the Project Director be endorsed
3. The next steps as outlined in paragraph 3.14 of the Project Director’s report be endorsed