Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Terry Brown (due to Council business), Pat Haughton, Debra Platt and Stella Walsh.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any personal interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda. If the interest arises only as result of your membership of another public body or one to which you have been appointed by the Council then you only need to declare it if you intend to speak.

If the personal interest is a prejudicial interest, you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

No Members declared an interest in respect of items on the agenda.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group – Streetscene held on 1 September 2008 (to follow)

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group – Streetscene held on 1 September 2008.

It was reported to the Task Group that the up to date maintenance schedules that had been requested would be circulated to Members as soon as they become available.

Members of the public who have requested the opportunity to ask a question(s) on an item(s) on the agenda will be asked to put their question(s) to the Panel. Each member of the public will be allowed to ask one supplementary question within his/her allocated 3 minutes.  

There were no questions from members of the public.

To receive feedback form Members following their experience of the operation of the street cleansing teams and the demonstration of the equipment used by the Streetscene service    

As a fact finding exercise Members had been invited to visit the Bengal Street Depot to see a demonstration of the machinery used as well as meet the staff and possibly go out as one of the litter collections or street sweeping routes.

One of the Group Members went out on a litter collection scheduled route and welcomed the information that was provided.  However, it was observed that the operative had a set route and had driven passed bins that were full and did not collect from them.  It was explained that this should not have been the case.   There was a need to improve communication with the operatives and a need to review the schedules to avoid this happening.

Members received before the meeting a viewing of the types of litter bins that were available to the Council and an explanation was given to their suitable locality.

Members of the Task Group to determine the next steps for the inquiry

There was a need to obtain additional evidence from the companies that provide the Council with litter bins to explain their build quality and their cost.

As more people are recycling there was a need to look at other recycling sites of the type that exists in Withnell Fold and perhaps extend them across the authority.

The current round of ward walks was providing useful evidence and some information would be fed into the inquiry.

Other people that could provide evidence are Lancashire County Council, Parish Councils and members of staff from the Waste Management Team and Streetscene.  These people would be attending future meetings.