Issue - meetings

The Chair to summarise  the issues raised during discussion of the Veolia Contract, and the Committee will comment on the next steps of working with the new contract.

We noted that Veolia Environmental Services had taken over responsibility for the Council’s Refuse, Recycling and Street Cleansing Services in April 2011. We noted also that the intention was to provide a waste management service that exhibits top quartile performance, fulfilled Haringey’s ambition of increasing recycling and reducing carbon emissions and provided environmentally friendly services. A locally based service for street cleansing had been introduced with the Borough has been divided up into 8 “Villages” which for the most part mapped onto the Area Committees.  Each Village had its own, locally based resources and a Village Manager. The Veolia Village Manager for Crouch End, Hornsey and Stroud Green was Debbie Hajbok and the Haringey Contract Manager was Jean-Francois Moreau.

At the invitation of our Chair Councillor Reece summarised the main points of the new service outlined earlier at the Area Forum and the matters arising

The New Service

·        On average 2x/week manual sweep for all residential streets

·        6 day sweeping service – Monday to Saturday

·        Recycling  – Service designed to increase the rate to 40% by 2015

·        Introduction of 240 litre bins for recycling

·        Trade waste recycling

·        A Free Bulky Recycling and Reuse Collection Service

·        A phased introduction of fortnightly collections on residential streets (excluding estates, main roads and flats above shops) for non recyclable, general  waste – starting from the west where recycling rates were highest

·        75% of waste would continue to be picked up weekly as recycling – including plastics, paper, garden and food waste

·        Significant CO2 reductions – 12,000 tonnes equivalent per annum

·        Improving Resident Satisfaction  - Key performance Indicator

Local Priorities

While the contract term was still in its early stages Veolia’s short term aims, between the present time and the September’s meeting of the Area Committee/Forum would be to:

·        Stabilise the service

·        Get to understand the local issues

·        Start the local engagement process – Area Forums, resident groups, traders and dedicated communications staff who will meet with the public directly to discuss recycling and future service changes

·        Develop Local Action Plans e.g. Fly tipping

Medium Term goals over the next 12 months, will be to

·        Continue to work with residents to address their concerns

·        Develop local targets for performance

·        Develop local reporting on performance, responsiveness and cost

·        Implement Local Action Plans

In the longer term – 12 months +, once local performance reporting was in place, and there had been an opportunity to review the effectiveness of Local Action Plans, consideration could be given to re-adjusting services where required to reflect local priorities. However, there were some constraints in that any proposed changes would still need to be compliant with Council policy, and be affordable within the service’s budget. In the meantime, the reporting of all problems including dumped rubbish, missed collections and overflowing bins the fastest and most efficient contact point was the Veolia call centre.

Clarification was sought of whether or not it would be possible to reduce the twice weekly street cleaning to once a week in streets where it was found  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4