Agenda and minutes

Venue: Education Room, Smallmead Recycling Centre, Reading RG2 0RP

Contact: Hannah Stevenson  01344 352308

Items
No. Item

1.

Election of Chairman

Minutes:

RESOLVED that Councillor Mrs Hayes MBE  be elected Chairman of the Joint Waste Board for the municipal year 2019/20.

2.

Nomination of Vice Chairman

Minutes:

RESOLVED that Councillor Page be appointed Vice-Chairman of the Joint Waste Disposal Board Management Committee for the 2019/20 Municipal Year.

 

Councillor Batth nominated Councillor Halsall as Vice- Chairman but the nomination was not seconded.  

3.

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.

4.

Minutes of the Meeting of the Joint Waste Disposal Board pdf icon PDF 151 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Joint Waste Disposal Board held on 25 April 2019.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Waste Disposal Board held

on the 25 April 2019 be approved as a correct record and signed by the

Chairman.

5.

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 minutes.

6.

Progress Report pdf icon PDF 330 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 the progress in the delivery of the re3

Joint Waste PFI Contract. The report covered:

 

  • Background of re3
  • Performance
  • Communications
  • Plastic Campaign
  • Re3cyclopedia
  • Newsletter
  • Social Media

 

In view of the fact that some new Members of the Board had been introduced, the Board received a short briefing on the background to the re3 partnership:

 

  • The re3 partnership was originally formed to deliver the statutory disposal function of the three Councils. 
  • By working together, the three Councils were able to procure a significant contract and operate at a scale which would have been difficult as individual authorities. This is one reason why the facilities available to re3 residents are so well appreciated.
  • The shared strategic approach, directed by the re3 partnership is apparent in recent developments such as plastic recycling and the implementation of food waste recycling in Wokingham.
  • The re3 contract had proven flexible in addressing changes in legislation.
  • The re3 partnership exercises regional and national influence.

 

In relation to the existing re3 Strategy:

  • Progress in Objective C (Part A) for each of the Council’s was as follows:

Bracknell Forest Council – Target 43% Actual 45.97%

Reading Borough Council – Target 39% Actual 37.36%

Wokingham Borough Council – Target 53% Actual 54.13%

  • Available data covered April and May only.
  • Recycling rates tended to be higher at the start of the year than at the end of the year.
  • Recycling rates had increased from the same time last year. It was asked that, in future, the previous years figures be included on the graph as a comparison.
  • Wood recycling had increased recycling rates by c5%.
  • The introduction of food recycling had increased Wokingham’s recycling rates by c6%. 
  • Progress in Objective C (Part B) for each of the Council’s was as follows:

Bracknell Forest Council – Target 23% Actual 24.86%

Reading Borough Council – Target 24% Actual 19.92%

Wokingham Borough Council – Target 26% Actual 29.90%

  • The HWRC recycling rate was 20% higher than last year, this had been helped by the introduction of wood recycling and improvements in reuse. This was a good news story.
  • It was explained that the performance targets were set by the individual councils themselves and were in their final year. Conversations would be held over the course of the year in regards to setting new targets.
  • The communication plan for the plastic campaign had been presented at the last meeting. It was proposed that communications would be targeted in areas with the highest concentration of plastic material. The mapping (which determined areas to target) had been put together using the composition analysis that had been undertaken a few months back, this data was overlaid with demographic factors to target different groups. The information on plastic, on the re3 website, would be developed in accordance with the targeting and there would be a social media campaign. The target audience would be families with children at home who would recycle staple items but may sometimes be confused about other items.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Climate Change Report pdf icon PDF 442 KB

To brief the re3 Joint Waste Disposal Board on work aimed at helping to reduce the impact on climate change from the treatment of waste within the re3 area.

Minutes:

The Board received a report briefing them on work aimed at helping to reduce the impact on climate change from the treatment of waste within the re3 area.

 

Climate change was being brought to the Board’s attention as there had been a declaration of climate crisis in Reading and Wokingham (and interest in action across the entire partnership area). Requests from members for progress on the specific issue.  This was a high profile issue both locally and nationally and the government were being proactive on the issue.

 

re3 were currently talking to Reading University about potential work on climate change.  This would help to support decision making in relation to waste, and would offer a different perspective, as well as identifying new means of assessing operational choices.

 

The Board were provided with a graph that showed the composition and content of waste for each Council and the indicative CO2 equivalent per kg. Waste going to landfill was a key area to focus on and address. For Wokingham, the key different in their CO2 output was due to the introduction of food waste collection and recycling. 

 

It was very early days, and progress would be reported back through council officers and at next board. It was fortunate that the University was so close and willing to help.

 

The re3 Project Director was not sure whether similar work was being done elsewhere, but re3 intended to find out. If there was research already available then this would be helpful, if not then re3 would be leading the way

 

Peter Baveystock was happy to provide briefings to both Reading and Bracknell before the next Board meeting regarding Wokingham’s food waste implementation. He also provided a verbal update:

 

·         The implementation of food waste had been very challenging.

·         The response from the public had been very positive. Very few food bins had been handed back.

·         Food bins had been delivered after the blue bags with many residents calling to ask where their bins were.

·         The communications employed by Wokingham and developed with the assistance of WRAP and re3 had been effective.

·         Wokingham’s Members were encouraged by how much the public had embraced the food waste bins.

·         It was key to provide the bin liners, if a resident wished to have more bags, these were available for free at all libraries.

·         The food waste went  through a pipe then the bag was extracted and sent to energy from waste (EfW), so they didn’t end up in landfill.  This was because the biodegradable bags tended to turn into a sponge type consistency and block the pipe system.

·         Home composting was still ok to do.

·         Residents were particularly please that cooking oil could be put into the food waste boxes.

·         Promotion of the service in flats was just starting, some flats had already approached the Council to introduce the food waste recycling.

 

It was suggested that the bags could be made available at small local small corner shops or in Reading’s case somewhere near the train  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

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 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.

 

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:

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 on the agenda 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

9.

Finance Report

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

Minutes:

The Board received a report briefing them re3 on the Partnership’s financial position and re3 plans to fully utilise the HWRCs.

 

It was requested that a proposal for the Green Machine and the Reuse shop proposal be brought to the next Board meeting in October.

 

RESOLVED that:

 

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

 

ii.     Members approve the proposal to share any capacity of Grundons

Energy from Waste (EfW) within the contractual limit equally between the councils.

 

iii.     Members approve Non-Household Waste charging to remain the same.

 

iv.   Members approve the proposal for a trial of trade waste acceptance at the re3 HWRCs.

 

v.     Members delegate the re3 Project Director and an appropriate officer from each re3 council, to engage in initial negotiations with Defra on the subject of the Resources and Waste Strategy (RWS).

 

10.

Date of the Next Board Meeting

The next Joint Waste Disposal Board is scheduled for the 10 October 2019, at Wokingham Borough Council.

 

Minutes:

The next Joint Waste Disposal Board was scheduled for the 10 October 2019,

at Wokingham Borough Council.

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk