O&S.03/21
At
the invitation of the Chairman, the Committee was addressed by the
Executive Lead Member with responsibility for waste and
recycling. The Member stated that he
was very concerned with the level of service provided to some parts
of the South Hams District by FCC Environment (the Council’s
Contractor) and took responsibility for this as residents looked to
the Council to provide a satisfactory waste and recycling
collection service.
The Member outlined initial explanations and
reasons, including a dislike of service change of which there were
many, and teething troubles, and said that South Hams District
Council (SHDC) did not react quickly enough to the initial
problems. The new round changes to collections had been devised by
FCC Environment, who had assured SHDC that the new rounds had been
tested and worked well, but it was clear that this was not the case
as some rounds had been assigned to vehicles which were too big for
their allocated route. This, coupled
with new vehicle drivers being assigned to routes they did not know
and without a pilot to show the way to go, had been a major
contributing factor to the problems being experienced.
The Member paid tribute to all who had
worked hard to get this service improved, including the staff in
waste, local Ward Members who had been dealing with members of the
public and to the Executive, who had worked strenuously to get
things put right, including regular meetings with the Contractor,
at which the Council’s dissatisfaction with the service was
repeatedly stressed.
The Member said he believed that the new
service, when made to work, would be the right approach as its aim
was to improve recycling rates within the District and align the
service to the rest of Devon and the majority of the West Country
and Wales. This approach to waste
collection would soon become a Central Government
requirement. With the enhanced ability
to collect and recycle bottles, food waste, and a greater variety
of plastic containers, where the service was operating properly,
the recycling rates had increased significantly and the landfill
waste much reduced.
The Lead Member concluded by apologising to
the public and Members.
The Deputy Chief Executive acknowledged that
SHDC had not provided good customer service nor delivery to all
residents of South Hams. He averred
that the team had been working hard to improve the situation, often
working 12 hours a day and seven days a week, but that the Council
had been fundamentally let down by its Contractor. He apologised to Members for having to deal with
these issues and to residents for having to experience these
issues, and thanked the Lead Member of the Executive for his hard
work and support. Due to the sheer
volume of contact over these issues, unfortunately not all emails
had received a response, again negatively impacting on the service
provided to both Members and the public. The Deputy Chief Executive firmly held FCC
Environment responsible for the situation.
The Officer ...
view the full minutes text for item O&S.3/21