Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Civic Offices, Shute End, Wokingham - Council Offices, Shute End, Wokingham. View directions

Contact: Hannah Harding  01344 352308

Link: This meeting will be a Hybrid meeting

Media

Items
No. Item

20.

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.

21.

Minutes of the Meeting of the Joint Waste Disposal Board pdf icon PDF 130 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Joint Waste Disposal Board held on 9 January 2023.

Minutes:

The spelling of Francesca Hobson would be amended within the minutes.

 

RESOLVED that subject to the amendments, the minutes of the meeting of the Joint

Waste Disposal Board held on the 9 January 2023, be approved as a correct

record.

22.

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.

23.

Progress Report pdf icon PDF 168 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 briefing them on progress in the delivery of the re3 Joint

Waste PFI Contract.

 

The report covered:

 

·       re3 and Council Performance Statistics

·       Waste Tracking

·       WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Banks

·       Recycling of Flexible Plastic Packaging

·       Booking System Translations

·       Links Between Booking Systems and Fly-tipping

·       HWRC (Household Waste Recycling Centre) Reuse Options

·       Review of HWRC Charges

·       Actions from the HWRC User Satisfaction Survey

·       Community Compost Scheme

·       Agenda Setting

                                      

Sarah Innes reported the provisional recycling rates for April 2022 – January 2023 were detailed within the report alongside a comparison of the full year of 2021/22. Graphs setting out the quarterly performance had also been included which showed that the recycling rates for all three Councils were slightly below the figures for last year. A full year of data would be available at the next meeting in June, Sarah would provide a full breakdown of the data at this meeting however it was already clear that the compostable tonnage, food waste and garden waste, was already below previous year’s figures. It was suggested that the cost of living could have had an impact on the amount of food waste collected as people were not wasting as much food.

 

Since 2004, Local Authorities had to report their waste data to Government via

the Waste Data Flow System. This included the tonnages of waste collected and details of how and where each tonne is treated. Later in 2023, or in 2024, these systems were due to be replaced by a digital waste tracking service. Defra was building the system up gradually and it is understood that they would work on plans for local authority usage and provision of data in the first half of 2023. It was currently unclear what the implications of this were. Officers would seek to be part of the discussions so that the implications for data entry and monitoring could better be understood.

 

At the January meeting of the Joint Waste Disposal Board, Members had instructed

Officers to investigate the idea of using a network of recycling banks to collect small

electrical appliances. Officers had spoken to three local authorities who currently use banks to collect these items and investigated how re3 could provide a similar service. As a result, an expression of interest in relation to the Material Focus WEEE fund had been submitted, which had been successful to get to the next stage of funding. Sarah asked for feedback from Members in regard to where the banks should be situated. If the bid was approved there would be 30 banks, 10 banks per authority which would allow each Council to look at a cross section of sites borough wide.

 

At the January Meeting of the Joint Waste Disposal Board, Members asked Officers to investigate options for recycling flexible plastic packaging and as a result Sarah had been talking to the Flexible Plastic Fund ‘FlexCollect’ Project which a small number of Councils were currently trialling. The FlexCollect team were currently looking  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

24.

Communications Report pdf icon PDF 2 MB

To brief the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on the Partnership’s communications activities.

Minutes:

The Board received a report briefing them on the Partnership’s communications activities.

 

The report covered:

 

·       re3Grow Community Compost scheme

·       Contamination awareness

·       Vapes recycling

·       Recycling Centres inclusion campaign

·       Safety at HWRCs campaign

·       Anti-litter campaign

 

Monika Bulmer, e3 Communications and Marketing Officer, detailed the re3grow community compost scheme which was directed at local organisations and

schools. The scheme would be promoted to the public via local news outlets, social media, newsletters, and directly to potential beneficiaries. The press release and social media assets were currently being prepared and would be available to use by the councils’ communications officers. There had been 69 beneficiaries last year, with over 160 bags distributed.

 

Re3Grow compost had commenced at the end of February, which was now in its fifth year. A new poster, promoting its features had been produced and would be displayed at both sites. It was reported that bags had already been sold.

 

A set of infographics, presenting the current contamination level in each Councils’

recycling bins had been produced. It included environmental impacts and costs, and

the infographic for each council. These were included in appendix 1 of the report. Across re3, £487k could have been saved last year, if all items were sorted correctly and it was important to talk about this with residents. Officers would be receiving regular infographics.

 

Vape recycling had been discussed at the previous meeting and was proving to be a difficult challenge. It has been established that the majority of local vape retailers have not set up the take back schemes. Trading Standards believe this is due to lack of information in relation to their legal obligations. Suggested guidance to residents was to recycle vape pens at the Recycling Centres and not placed in rubbish bins. Monika had spoken to OPSS to seek further guidance and Trading Standards had advised it might be helpful for re3 to support retailers by contacting them and providing guidance on how to set up the take back scheme.

 

The online booking system webform had be enhanced by integrating translation

services for over 100 languages. This new feature would aim at improving accessibility and clarity for residents whose first language is not English. The new feature would be advertised using social media advertising, aiming at

multicultural audiences living locally. Further research and analysis would be done to map areas of low usage and to advertise the service in those areas. Target groups who were under consideration were residents who:

 

·       had recently moved to the area.

·       lived in rented and shared accommodation.

·       had low literacy levels.

·       had low technical skills.

·       had a disability or impairment.

·       lived in a deprived area.

re3 was taking part in the trial safety campaign launched by the FCC Environment across their four contracts. The campaign aims at reducing the number of accidents on site.

 

The re3 Marketing and Communications Officer presented details of an anti-litter

campaign that utilised an existing national app called LitterLotto. These incentivise

residents to pick up and dispose of litter correctly. The full  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

25.

Legislation Report pdf icon PDF 244 KB

To brief Members in relation to the emerging detail from the Environment Act 2021, as it relates to waste management.

Minutes:

The Board received a report briefing Members in relation to the emerging detail from the Environment Act 2021, as it related to waste management.

 

There had been two rounds of public consultations (2020 and 2021), in which

Government sought input on how the three main limbs of the strategy (Extended

Producer Responsibility (EPR), Deposit Return Scheme (DRS). The consultation documents had been released on these two areas, but the documents on Waste

Collection Consistency were still awaiting release.

 

Extended Producer Responsibility – The Government wishes producers of packaging to pay the full net cost of collection andtreatment associated with the packaging placed into circulation. This is to encouragebetter overall design of packaging.Under EPR, producers will pay modulated fees, set according to the assessedenvironmental impact and/or treatment cost of the packaging they put into circulation. Councils would be assessed according to the relative ‘Efficiency’ and ‘Effectiveness’ of their service. Councils would be placed within a performance cohort, wherein their costs and their performance will be benchmarked against a ‘best in class’ council. Cohorts would be drawn from councils that shared some similarities.

 

Individual councils deemed to be sub-optimally ‘efficient’ and/or ‘effective’ may be presented with an Improvement Notice. When an Improvement Notice is issued, it would also identify future year funding reductions.

 

Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) - A deposit, an additional sum on top of the normal sale price, would be added to in-scope packaging, at the point of sale. It was noted that these were drink containers, bottles and cans specifically, but not all bottles and cans! The deposit would most likely be a sum such as 20p per item which was a sum that had been widely referred-to throughout the consultations. This would apply to both single and multi-pack items.

 

Waste Collection Consistency – Even though the report was yet to be published, it was already known that Councils would be mandated to collect newspapers and magazines, cardboard, glass bottles, plastic bottles, plastic pots/tubs/trays and steel and aluminium cans or tins. Plastic film, aerosols, cartons and foil would be added to the list of mandated materials, most likely in 2027.

 

Glass collection and plastic film collection and processing would need to be added to

re3’s current services to achieve compliance.

 

It was important to note some of the potential outputs and issues that could arise. It was likely that there could be a financial squeeze from producers. The elderly and disabled hadn’t been factored into DEFRAs impact assessment, which was still an issue. The cost of living was a big factor, for example the three SNP candidates had recently stated that they would pause their DRS, which was ahead of the one in England, due to the cost issues involved. There were repercussive contract costs as there were certain things within the contract that may need to be changed due to the change in legislation. There was also the issue of possible changes in packaging changes and packaging being phased out which could affect  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

26.

Exclusion of Public and Press

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 9 & 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.

 

NB:      No representations have been received in response to the notice under regulation 5 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012

Minutes:

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 9 & 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.

27.

Financial Management Report

To brief the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on the Partnership’s current financial position.

Minutes:

The Board received the Finance Report which briefed the re3 Joint Waste Disposal

Board on the Partnership’s current financial position.

 

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

28.

Contract Transition Report

To brief Members on steps that will be required as the councils consider, plan, and then deliver the transition of this contract.

Minutes:

The Board received a report briefing Members on steps that would be required as the

three Councils considered, planned and then delivered the transition of the contract.

 

RESOLVED that

 

i.       Members note the contents of the report.

 

ii.     Members endorse the contents of the draft Transition Plan and the proposal for indicative costs and timelines to be presented to the re3 Board (as at paragraphs 5.21 to 5.23).

 

iii.    Members incorporate future reports on Transition, in its agenda for future

meetings of the re3 Board.

29.

Date of the Next Board Meeting

Thursday 15 June at 9:30am at Reading Borough Council.

Minutes:

Thursday 15 June 2023 at Reading Borough Council.

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk