Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Council Chamber (Reading) - Reading Borough Council, Civic Offices. View directions

Contact: Hannah Harding  01344 352308

Items
No. Item

37.

Election of Chairman

Minutes:

RESOLVED that Councillor Mrs Hayes MBE  be elected Chairman of the Joint Waste Disposal Board for the municipal year 2021/22.

38.

Appointment of Vice-Chairman

Minutes:

RESOLVED that Councillor Page be nominated Vice Chairman of the Joint Waste Disposal Board for the municipal year 2021/22.

39.

Declarations of Interest

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.  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.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

40.

Minutes of the Meeting of the Joint Waste Disposal Board pdf icon PDF 146 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Joint Waste Disposal Board held on 17 June 2021.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting of the informal Joint Waste Disposal Board held on the 17June 2021, be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

41.

Urgent Items of Business

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

Minutes:

There were no urgent items of business.

42.

Progress Report pdf icon PDF 683 KB

To brief the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on progress in the delivery of the re3 Joint Waste PFI Contract.

Minutes:

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

 

The report covered:

 

·       re3 and Council Performance Statistics

·       Rigid Plastics Recycling Trial

·       e3Grow

·       Communications

·       Bike Reuse

 

Sarah Innes reported the performance statistic for all three Council, the provisional recycling rates for April to July were:

 

BFC – 58.3%

RBC – 52.9%

WBC – 56.7%

 

It was noted that as expected all three recycling rates were higher than the previous year, which was due to the changes that all three Councils had made to their kerbside collections earlier in the year.

 

The recycling rates for the re3 recycling centres were 67.84% at Longshot Lane and 72.10% at Smallmead, this was lower than the previous year, but it was though that this was due to the amount of residual waste being collected. However, across all three Councils there was a reduction in the rates from the previous year in the amount of residual waste being collected, which showed that the recycling changes were having a positive impact. The recycling rate for Longshot Lane was lower, this was due to the way in which the rate was calculated, and it was expected that this would level up over the coming months.

 

Contaminated waste in the kerbside mixed recycling was starting to slightly increase in Bracknell, a close eye would be kept on this in the coming weeks. A breakdown of materials found in the sampling results varied and the data would be circulated with the Board.

 

Following a successful sale of re3grow compost in 2020/2021, the re3 Project Team planned to increase the order to 10,000 bags of 40L compost for the next year. The compost was set to arrive early Spring 2021. As requested, the Marketing and Communication Officer would strengthen messages about the composting process, focusing on the peat-free quality of re3grow compost and would explain further to residents, the cost structure, showcasing that the price per bag had been calculated to cover the costs of producing and supplying the compost only. Communications would be ready for sign off by Christmas and would be publicised prior to residents being able to purchase the compost.

 

There was not a link between the green waste recycling issues and being able to produce the re3grow compost. Members would be receiving briefings by their Council’s on the green waste recycling.

 

At the Joint Waste Disposal Board Meeting in June 2021, Officers reported that a rigid plastics recycling trial would commence at both Recycling Centres in early July. The purpose of the trial was to enable the costs and benefits of the service to be assessed. The trial was still ongoing but it was reported that 33 tonnes of rigid plastics had been sent for recycling in the first six weeks. There had been positive feedback from the offtaker about low levels of contamination. The costs of recycling the rigid plastics were presented in the report, and officers were liaising with the Contractor to optimise the haulage of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

43.

Booking System Report pdf icon PDF 728 KB

To brief the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on access options for the re3 recycling centres.

Minutes:

The Board received a report briefing them on access options for the re3 recycling centres.

 

The report was broadly similar to the one received by the Board at its meeting in June 2021. The report covered the aims and benefits of the booking system.

 

It was highlighted that a survey was currently being conducted with neighbouring business in the Longshot Lane Industrial Estate regarding the booking system and the impact it has had on their access. The survey was still ongoing, but based on some feedback already received, the site was now allowing for residents to queue onsite at the recycling centre prior to the site opening at 8am. This was in order to remove cars from the road, and help access to the site.

 

The booking system was upgraded on the 18 August 2021. The upgrade included a postcode look up function which was working really well and would allow for good patronage data to be provided to the Board. There was only currently two weeks of data, but based on this data at Longshot Lane 61% of bookings were Bracknell residents, 38% were Wokingham residents and a handful of bookings were Reading residents. At Smallmead 57% of bookings were by Reading residents, 43% by Wokingham residents and a small number of bookings by Bracknell residents. This data would be monitored and shared when appropriate.

 

At the last meeting of the Board, Members asked for a number of options to be trialled.

 

The options were:

 

Option 1 – Removal of the booking system

 

This option was not trialled, as the contractor had plenty of experience of using the sites without a booking system.

 

Option 2 - Retention of the booking system, with current profiling and additional slots

 

As part of a trial, Officers, in consultation with the Contractor sought to progressively increase bookable slots to reach an optimised but practically operable level. Officers profiled increases of between 5% and 20%, based on our existing principles and previous booking levels, and trialled progressive increases at both Recycling Centres across June, July and August. During the peak of the trial, there were 13,134 slots available across both sites which 74% of the visitor numbers received back in 2019. This number did developer a slight queue at points.

 

Option 3 - Retention of the booking system, with weekday profiling and additional weekend slots

 

Under Option 3, the re3 Partnership could retain booking-slot profiling during the working week (Monday to Friday) similar to the numbers currently available, in order to maintain easy access for other service users and then at the weekend, from 1pm on Saturday and throughout Sunday, a larger number of bookable visits would be scheduled. Two weekend trials were held over the summer. Feedback from the first weekend trial was used to assist how the second weekend trial would be operated. During the trial Longshot Lane was not fully booked, but Smallmead was, with 87% of residents happy with the length of time spent queueing. It was noted that higher  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.

44.

Exclusion of Public and Press

To consider the following motion:

 

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 item 10 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.

Minutes:

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 item 10 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.

45.

Finance Report

To brief the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on the Partnership’s current financial position, and to confirm the second draft budget.

Minutes:

The Board received the Finance Report which briefed the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on the Partnership’s current financial position and confirmed the second draft budget.

 

RESOLVED that

 

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

 

     ii.         Members endorse the option to replace the Gainshare provisions in the re3 Contract with a supplement, for food waste only, as described at 5.22 of the report.

 

    iii.         Members note the contents of this report.

46.

Date of the Next Board Meeting

The next meeting will be held at 9.30am on 2 December 2021.  Further meetings will be held at 9.30am on 3 March and 9 June 2021.

Minutes:

The next meeting would be held at 9.30am on 2 December 2021.

 

Further meetings will be held at 9.30am on 3 March and 9 June 2021.

 

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk