20/22
In accordance with
Council Procedure Rule 3.1(f), five Members of the Council had
requested that a Special Meeting of Full Council be called to
provide for ‘the attendance by a representative of FCC, the
Council’s Waste Collection Contractor, for the purpose of
presenting a report to Members on its performance in the delivery
of the waste service followed by Questions and
Answers’.
(a)
Chairman’s Introductory
Comments
In introducing the agenda item, the Chairman made
the following comments:
‘Members, before we begin the main item of the business this
afternoon, I want to make some introductory remarks.
This is a
special meeting of the Council. It has been called for the
purpose of allowing FCC to attend to present a report on its
performance in delivering the waste service, followed by Questions
and Answers. Mr Steve Longdon and
Mr Brian Ashby are here representing FCC. I understand that
they will be making a statement and that Cllr. Keith Baldry will
then make a short response setting out the council’s
position, followed by the Leader of the Council in her capacity as
the chair of the Waste Working Group. I will then open the
meeting to Members to ask their questions of Mr Longdon and Mr Ashby. I would ask that
Members ask questions rather than make statements and confine
themselves to the purpose why the five Members requested a meeting
to be called.
Before I
invite Mr Longdon and Mr Ashby to
address the Council, I must remind Members that the Council has a
contractual relationship with FCC. Consequently, the Council
is required to comply with the obligations and procedures provided
for in that contract. To that end, Members should follow the
advice given previously and should refrain from saying or doing
anything that might cause the Council itself to be in breach of
contract.’
(b)
Statement from FCC
Representative(s)
The FCC Representative(s) proceeded to make the
following comments:
-
FCC
Environment understood South Hams residents’ frustration and
annoyance with the continued disruption to the waste and recycling
services and wished to sincerely apologise for the failure to
deliver the service that was expected and deserved;
-
In
particular, the representatives wished to say sorry for the
difficulties experienced with the reintroduction of the garden
waste collection service. There were
reasons for this but it was clarified that, when the service was
rolled out, FCC had recruited sufficient staff required under the
contract to deliver the service.
However, since then staff had left the contract and the
organisation had been unable to replace them. FCC was operating an average absence level of 14%
and, along with other issues which had made ongoing recruitment
challenging, this had made delivering the service problematic.
Notwithstanding these issues, residents had a right to expect a
good and reliable service;
-
At all
stages, FCC had sought to work with the Council to improve and
resolve the situation and this remained the case;
-
Finally,
FCC remained fully committed to ensuring that everybody had
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