Meeting documents

Details of all Members’ interests in District, Town and Parish Councils will be displayed in the meeting room. The Statutory Register of Member’s Interests can be inspected via the Democratic Services team.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Committee is asked to confirm the minutes are accurate.

The minutes of the meeting on 11 December 2017 were accepted as being

accurate by the Panel.

The Chairman will allow members of the public to ask a question or make a statement about any matter on the agenda for this meeting. These questions may be taken during the meeting, when the relevant agenda item is considered, at the Chairman’s discretion.  

There were no public questions.

To receive the report. 

The Panel received a report from the Managing Director, Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP), which updated Members on the progress in procuring a new collection contractor to deliver the Recycle More contract.  The current contract with Kier will end 18 months early, allowing Recycle More to begin from March 2020.

In addition to delivering the environmental benefits of Recycle More a new collection contract aims to deliver significant savings to all partners, through reduced contract costs, lower disposal costs and additional recycling credits for district partners – estimated in total at up to £1.7m.

SWP has a full suite of advisors engaged in the project. Eunomia Research and Consulting have been retained to provide commercial and technical advice throughout the procurement process. Procurement, legal and financial advice is being provided by relevant experts from SCC (SWP’s administering authority). Together with SWP officers and Adrian Gardner (SDC), these form the project team. The Strategic Management Group (one senior officer from each partner) is acting as a project board, with a Member New Service Task and Finish Group providing a political steer. The project timetable remains on track but, as previously indicated, it remains very tight.

SWP held a number of one-to-one soft market engagement sessions in November and December in order to gauge the likely level of interest from the market, seek their views on our proposed approach, and to understand any specific areas of concern or complexity which we may need to explore through the dialogue phases of the procurement procedure. These sessions proved incredibly valuable, and give SWP confidence in the likely level of market interest and the approach we propose but also highlighted a number of challenging areas we will have to work through in the process.  It is evident from the soft market testing that all potential suppliers are becoming more risk averse, and the ripple effect of China’s restrictions on low quality recyclate imports is creating uncertainty in the market.

A local authority Company remains a contingency plan should suitable bids not be forthcoming from the market.  SWP believe that there may be efficiencies from operating services for the west of the county from a single depot rather than continuing to use separate Bridgwater and Taunton depots.  SWP are currently working closely with partners to assess a number of sites which may be potentially suitable (although there will be no certainty of whether such a facility is required until final tenders have been received). 

The report detailed a timescale for the next phases of work in the procurement process.

The Panel questioned the recycling of batteries and mixed plastics.  It was confirmed that it is hoped to collect all types of batteries but to particularly target lithium batteries.  Car batteries can be recycled at recycling centres but not at the kerbside. It was clarified that different parts of plastic containers e.g. lids can be made from different polymers to the main body.  The Panel raised  the adoption of single use plastic policies by some authorities following recent  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

To receive the report. 

The Panel received a report which summarised the key performance indicators for the period from April 2017 to December 2017 compared to the same period in the last two years.  Performance is stable with no significant changes to trends.

The Panel also considered a presentation outlining the main findings of an in depth service review of missed collections (called a deep dive).  This was carried out as the quarter 2 performance data highlighted missed collections as areas of concern. 

The Panel considered the definition of a missed collection, performance data and the causes of missed collections. 

Members were informed that the contractor, Kier, has already taken action to improve performance and is developing an action plan to address this further moving forward.

This includes rebalancing rounds, providing training to staff and the recruitment of three new supervisors.  SWP are monitoring performance daily with weekly management team review and performance deductions will be applied from April 2018 if there is insufficient progress. 

The Panel noted the report. 

The Chairman may raise any items of urgent business.

Cllr Mike Lewis agreed to Chair the next meeting, anticipated in July 2018.