To consider the attached report of the Director (Customer and Digital) which will be considered at Executive Cabinet on 19 January 2017.
Minutes:
Councillor Peter Wilson (on behalf of Councillor Graham Dunn, Executive Member for Customer and Advice Services) presented a report seeking approval to significant changes to the waste collection service provided to households in the Borough in order to generate future savings and simplify paper and card recycling. This was necessary since the Council would lose £900,000 in waste cost share funding from LCC from 2018.
The report had been approved at Executive Cabinet on 19 January and Council was asked to agree the waste collection changes, along with the financial implications for both the capital programme and prudential borrowing.
The new service and changes proposed were as follows:
· continued fortnightly collections of the green bin for general waste
· the introduction of an optional green waste collection at £30 per year for those residents who wished to take up the service and for which they would receive a grey bin
· the current brown bin would be used for both paper and card (rather than the current black pod), and would be collected monthly, due to the increase in capacity
· a charge would be imposed for lost or damaged bins
Councillor Alistair Bradley seconded the proposed changes which he said were necessary because of continued funding cuts.
Councillor Eric Bell felt the proposed changes would be confusing for residents and he proposed an amendment, supported by Councillor Martin Boardman. The amended proposals were to:
· retain the green waste collection in the brown bin and collect monthly in winter, fortnightly in summer
· the green bin with general waste to remain unchanged
· use green box for paper and card to be collected monthly
· retain blue bin for recycling which without the pod would increase capacity and could be collected monthly
The Conservative Group referred to the introduction of a £30 charge for garden waste as a garden tax which impacted in particular on those in rural areas and would be confusing for residents. Residents would also need to accommodate 4 rather than 3 wheeled bins.
Members of the Labour Group challenged the Conservative Group to provide the savings achieved by their amendment, as no financial impact was circulated and they felt the proposals would not meet the £900,000 shortfall.
The Conservative amendment, proposed by Councillor Eric Bell and seconded by Martin Boardman, was put to the vote and LOST.
The substantive motion, as outlined in the report, proposed by Councillor Peter Wilson, Executive Member for Resources and seconded by Councillor Alistair Bradley, Executive Leader was put to the vote and CARRIED and it was therefore RESOLVED - that the following proposals be adopted:
1. A charge for all new and replacement wheeled bins is introduced from April 2017 (excluding new garden waste bins).
2. A subscription based garden waste collection service is introduced with a proposed effective date of May 2017.
3. That co-mingled paper and card collections are introduced in July 2017 and the brown bins currently in circulation are used for this purpose. Collection frequency will change to four weekly for this waste stream.