Agenda and minutes

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 13 October 2017.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 13 October 2017 be approved as a correct record and signed be the Chairman.

Arising on the minutes, the Board noted that:

·         Work was progressing on the formal change notice for food waste collections. It had been Agreed at Wokingham Borough Council’s Executive on the 25 January that they would be going ahead with Food Waste collection and hoped to have this in place from April 2019.

·         From Monday 12 February 2018 there would be a mail shot regarding the new plastic recycling, sent out to all residents in the Re3 partnership. These would take between 7 -10 days for all residents to receive and included a letter informing what the changes were, FAQs, a leaflet detailing what was recyclable and a leaflet setting out why recycling was important. Clear plastic takeaway containers would be recyclable.

Monica would provide all Members with the final version of the letter and leaflets electronically.

The changes would be implemented from the first collection after the letter had been received.

·         Compost sales  from the recycling centres would be going ahead in the early part of 2018. FCC were in discussions with legal surrounding setting the costs of the compost bags. Advice given had indicated that FCC should not make a loss or a profit and nor were they allowed to undercut the market, a price of £3 per 40L bag had been suggested, which was inline with other local retailers. The bags would be branded as “Re3 Grow” and sold outside the front of the recycling facilities and there were no planning or licensing issues.

Members were supportive of the idea but wished for more detail to be provided around the haulage of the compost. Oliver Burt confirmed that a paper would be circulated to Members outside of the Board Meeting.

There were no urgent items of business.

A  presentation was given by Paul Taylor, Chief Executive of FCC Environment and Adrian Clarke, General Manager of re3 Ltd,  which would be circulated to the Board Members.

This covered:

·         An overview of the waste industry.

·         The impact of Brexit.

·         FCC thoughts on the Governments 25 year plan.

·         The impact on Chinas decision to restrict recycling.

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 updating it on delivery of the re3 Joint Waste PFI Contract. The report covered:

·         Review of Charging Structure for Non-Household Waste

·         Green Machine Service Level Agreement

·         Marketing and Communications Review

The Board was advised that:

·         The review of charging had gone well and the feedback had been positive from residents.

·         The SLA for paint sales had been agreed and marketing would begin. This would be publicised on the sites by the meet and great staff.

·         The message of why glass is not part of the kerbside collection needed to be repeated and promoted throughout the three Boroughs.

RESOLVED that Members noted 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 8 & 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 (including the authority holding that information)

RESOLVED 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 (including the authority holding that information)

To receive a report briefing  the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on the contract savings project related to the re3 Joint Waste PFI Contract.

The Joint Waste Disposal Board received a report briefing them on the contract savings project related to the re3 Joint Waste PFI Contract.

The re3 Board were familiar with the process as they had received reports in January & April 2017 on the project.

The PID described specifically how it proposed to approach the deliver of the target savings. A  table breaking down the potential contract savings and options was included within the report.

RESOLVED that:

i.              Members noted the contents of the report.

ii.             Members approve the Project Initiation Document for the re3 Contract Savings Project.

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

The Members received a report briefing them on the Partnership’s current financial position. 

Arising from the report it was noted that:

·         There had been a net underspend which was reflected in each Council’s budget.

·         The December tonnage had been lower than expected at Longshot Lane, but it was expected that this would balance out in January.

·         The third draft of the 2018/19 budget had been included with the report, the re3 Principal Finance Officer had met with each Council’s relevant accountant to approve the budget.

·         Members decided against commencing with measures to accept trade waste (for a charge) at the Recycling Centres. Members requested that a desk top exercise be undertaken regarding housing growth verses recycling capacity.

·         Four options were presented regarding the charges for  non- household waste, with Members recommending to increase the charges inline with inflation but requested to look at it again in six months time.

·         Members requested that a presentation be given at the next meeting regarding the recycling rate and how other Local Authorities were recording this.

RESOLVED that:

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

ii.     Members recommended to increase charges for non- household waste inline with inflation.

The date of the next Joint Waste Disposal Board is Friday 24 April 2018 at Wokingham Borough Council.

The Board noted that its next meeting would be held at 11am on Friday 27 April 2018 at Wokingham Borough Council.