O&S.15/21
The Executive Member
with responsibility for Waste and Recycling, along with relevant
officers, presented a report which provided an update on the
Council’s waste and recycling contractor’s (FCC)
performance since the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held
on 10 June 2021 and the Extraordinary Council meeting held on
17June 2021, as requested at previous Overview and Scrutiny
Committee meetings (minutes O&S.03/21 and O&S10/21
refer).
During the update the
following points were made:
·
While an improvement in performance was
acknowledged, it was far from the improvement the Committee had
been expecting. However, the
‘pingdemic’ and national
lack of HGV drivers were noted as having impacted on performance.
FCC’s action to increase resources in the area was
noted.
·
The Vice Chair gave his thanks to the Executive
Member, the Deputy Chief Executive, and the Waste Team for their
continued hard work in attempting to resolve this
issue.
·
Section 2.7 Missed Bins was
highlighted: contractual levels were
240 per month, but were currently averaging at 50 per
day. Members considered this to be
deeply regrettable.
·
It was estimated that in the region of 500
households were still not receiving a consistent recycling
service.
·
Officers were interrogating data from FCC to ensure
quality of service on a daily basis, and contacting customers with
historical complaints to ensure there was no longer an
issue.
·
FCC were looking to increase storage space for
vehicles and increase bay size at the Ivybridge depot. FCC
were also reviewing rounds to ensure the correct mix of vehicles
were in place.
·
The Council would require a ‘cast iron’
confirmation from FCC that all issues could be resolved to the
timescale that had been agreed at the Extraordinary Council
meeting.
·
The Lead Executive Member thought that the issues
would not be resolved before the end of this calendar year, but
reiterated his commitment to getting the service up and running as
quickly as possible.
In light of some
Members wishing to raise points that were considered to be of an
exempt nature, it was:
RESOLVED
That in
accordance with Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972,
the public and press be excluded from the meeting during
consideration of the following item of business as the likely
disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of
Schedule 12A to the Act is involved.
Once all Members were content that they had no further
exempt issues or questions to raise, it was then:
RESOLVED
That the press and
public be re-admitted to the Meeting.
It was
then:
RESOLVED
That the Committee
1.
is disappointed in the failure
of FCC to fulfil its obligations in respect of all the services it
is contracted to supply to Council and calls upon them to implement
Devon aligned service across the District as soon as possible;
and
2.
Requests the Executive Member
and officers to provide a performance report on all services
provided by FCC by 15 August 2021.