Agenda item

Sections of this report have been redacted as it contains information not for publication by virtue of Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.  The full report has been sent to the Committee separately and any discussion on this exempt information will be held in private session.

The Cabinet Member for Waste & Recycling, Councillor Little, introduced the report to the committee.  She informed the committee that the methods of the district’s recycling were changed in April/May this year to dual stream recycling however, implementation did not go as well as desired.  It was reported that by the end of May the roll out was complete however, due to concerns, an Independent Expert’s report had been requested to look at the issues experienced and how the service could move forward.  This report was attached and Councillor Little asked the committee for any questions or observations.  She said there was a work programme for the Joint Waste Service now to address the concerns but asked for any other feedback.  She agreed the service needed to move forward and get back to the gold standard service the residents had enjoyed prior to this implementation and lengthy discussions took place around the failures and lessons learnt.

Cllr Matthews attended to brief the committee on the involvement of the Task Group and it was noted that although he was tasked in November last year to look at the roll out of the dual stream recycling scheme, for various reasons the Task Group did not meet until 17 Feb 2022 and met only once with one task and that was to review the communications strategy surrounding the roll out – the notes of this Task Group were provided.

The following views/questions were given:-

·         There was not sufficient support or “buy in” from local residents as members were not involved early enough; February for the Task Group was too late;

·         The Joint Waste Committee did not scrutinise or feed in to Overview & Scrutiny committees  nor members as to the progress and why blue bags were decided upon;

·         As this was a new service why was there no pilots/trials so staff could be trained in advance?;

·         The Leader was asked why the communication plan and deadlines were not adhered to?

·         Can we signpost to where Tetra-packs can be recycled (at the County Council’s recycling centres) on the website?

·         The Cabinet Member, at the time, Cllr Ashley Yeates, was not interviewed by the Independent person for his input in to the report;

·         Why did the other local authorities who were part of the introduction of the blue bag system, Tamworth, South Staffordshire, Cannock and East Staffordshire not seem to have the same problems as Lichfield District?

·         What was the additional costs in providing extra rounds?

·         When will HMO’s roll out be complete?

·         In hindsight, it was agreed a dedicated helpline would have been beneficial; it was highlighted that this was a suggestion of the Task Group but was not acted upon.

·         The delay in the supplier providing the bags meant staff were not given appropriate toolbox talks and this had had an enormous strain on capacity as it took drivers off collections to deliver bags, why was there no modelling done?

·         It was noted that the quality of recycling is good but it is the volumes that are not where they should be;

·         There was an obvious delay in responding when things seemed to be going wrong/briefing notes required if this happens again so members are fully advised;

·         A lot of reputational damage had been done and so the public were now very suspicious and not complimentary about the service at all so to overcome the suspicions, all Xmas information due to go out needs to be educational and give the proper information i.e. what goes where and when collection dates are?

·         LDC website needs to be clearer and information easy to find – and there should be the use images/photos/graphics to be more eye-catching – not reliant on social media;

·         Videos of what happens to the rubbish is educational and residents may appreciate this;

·         Members can contact the depot for extra blue bags and deliver to residents within their ward if required;

·         Good idea to upskill the current staff and employ agency staff who want to work at LDC with systematic recruitment process; Employment committee members are aware that the very small gender pay gap is attributed to the waste service as they disproportionately employ a large amount of men - Anything that could be done to encourage as wide a group in to this service by upskilling would be worthy and will future-proof the service;

·         The Collection teams have endured a lot of residents’ complaints recently and the committee would like to pay tribute to these teams as it is known they work very hard and are not to blame for the problems incurred.  It was requested that the Chief Executive pass this on to the teams.

It was noted that the missed bins reports had gone down and had now stabilised although not going much lower so it was confirmed that the Recycling Officers would be going out to households to help get this back on track and educate the residents as well as providing information on any contaminated bins as it was hoped to get the percentage lower.  Councillor Little said if any resident was struggling to understand why their bins were being labelled as contaminated, then they could contact the Recycling Officers direct.

Councillor Little advised the committee that the rounds were to be fixed first and Xmas planning but that she would then be looking at the data and looking at rounds to possibly encompass purple bins as a lot of requests for purple bins were being received and 15,000 residents currently had two blue bins across the district.  The Chair, Councillor Wilcox, asked if this Committee could look at the Joint Waste Service work programme before anything went out to residents and this was agreed. He also felt this O&S committee could add value to the transition of the trade waste customers roll out due in February next year.  Councillor Little agreed and said she would bring this item in the future as she also wanted to look at a tiered structure to encourage the trade waste customers to go to dual stream recycling instead of comingled.

RESOLVED:-

(1)  The Committee noted the report of the Independent Expert into the design and implementation of the dual stream recycling collection services in Lichfield and provided comments.

(2)  The Committee considered and commented on how the three key recommendations arising from the report could be achieved, i.e. the need to: