Agenda and minutes

To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests in respect of item on the agenda for this meeting.  

None.

The Chair advised that it is likely that a number of councillors may subscribe to the garden waste service being considered this evening.  The Monitoring Officer has advised that councillors who do subscribe to the garden waste service do not need to declare an interest in the item of business on the basis that this is not a disclosable pecuniary interest. 

To receive notification of any matters which the chair determines should be considered as urgent business and the special circumstances which have made the matters urgent, and to receive any announcements from the chair. 

None.

Members of the public who wish to address Council on the agenda item for this meeting must register to do so in writing or by email to democratic.services@southandvale.gov.uk no later than 5.00pm on Thursday 23 September 2021. 

The Chair provided details of those members of the public had registered to address Council.  Council agreed to extend the public speaking time to allow each member of the public who had registered to speak for three minutes to make their address.

Liz Bachelor addressed Council. She asked what plans the council had to address communication going forward.

Freddie van Mierlo, County Councillor for Chalgrove Division, addressed Council. He referenced the growing supply chain crisis and shortage of HGV drivers currently facing various sectors of the economy. In light of this, he expressed the view that it was unsurprising Biffa have found it difficult to collect Garden Waste and welcomed the prioritisation of general, food waste and recycling. He welcomed the resumption of the Garden Waste service.

Andy Smith addressed Council. Whilst disappointed that his Green Waste had not been collected, he expressed the view the issue was a consequence of a nationwide HGV driver shortage which was outside the control of the council.

Len Pannett addressed Council. He expressed the view that the problem had been caused by a national shortage of HGV drivers exacerbated by a retiring workforce, drivers leaving the sector due to tax changes, the impact of the pandemic in restricting the training and testing of new drivers and drivers returning home as a consequence of Brexit.

Andrew Jones addressed Council. He asked whether the suspension of the Garden Waste service was in accordance with the contract.

Council is invited to discuss and debate the current temporary suspension of the Garden Waste Service.

Council considered the report of the Head of Housing and Environment on the temporary suspension of the garden waste service and the steps taken to restart the service in discussion with Biffa, the council’s waste service contractor. The report set out the circumstances leading to the suspension, the national situation, communication with residents and the current situation.

In respect of the communication, he explained that whilst the garden waste service was provided by Biffa, the invoicing for the service was outsourced as part of the Five Councils Partnership Contract but did not include a system for communication with customers outside of invoicing.  This service was recently brought back inhouse but a process for communicating with customers was not in place prior to the suspension of the garden waste service.Due to the sudden suspension of the service, it was not possible to communicate with customers in advance. With the council only holding 37% of garden waste customers email addresses the decision was taken to communicate the suspension via social media and local media.   Writing to customers was estimated to cost around £30,000 and many of those letters would have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.