Issue - meetings

Cllr Canver (Cabinet Member for Environment)  will attend to respond to panel questions within the Environment portfolio. 

Councillor Canver, Cabinet Member for the Environment, attended to respond to member questions within this portfolio. Prior to taking member questions, the Cabinet member welcomed the work of the panel to help increase recycling in the borough and also made a number of points:

§  The roll-out of fortnightly collection had helped to improve the recycling rate from 26% to 32% and is currently above contractual target for year end 12/13;

§  The Council had been given money from Defra for a food waste collection system for flatted properties and this would be developed over the coming months.

Reuse and Recycling Centre

          In response to questions around the transfer of the Reuse and Recycling site from Hornsey High Street, the panel noted that planning consent and a waste management license were being sought for the new site at Cranfield Way.  The panel noted that there was no intention for the loss of this facility during the transfer.  The panel requested that further information (a briefing) is provided on the Reuse and Recycling Centre transfer process.

Agreed:     That a briefing is prepared on the transfer of the Reuse and Recycling Centre in Hornsey High Street to Cranfield Way (e.g. plans, planning approval, timescales and risks).

          Waste and recycling collection

In relation to the roll-out of fortnightly waste collections, there was a perception that there were still ongoing problems which were not being resolved quickly enough, particularly in relation to side waste and overflowing bins at specific properties and locations.  The Cabinet Member acknowledged that whilst the overwhelming majority of households had complied with the new collection system, problems remained with about 5% of households.  Veolia and Single Front Line were taking steps to monitor and engage such households.

The panel noted that there should be a range of policy options at the disposal of the Council to encourage more people to comply with the new waste and recycling collection systems, including both incentives and enforcement options.  To encourage people to make the necessary changes to their behaviour would require the use of a range of different policy tools by the Council.

The Cabinet Member also noted that recycling contamination rates were also relatively low in Haringey; currently this was about 0.5% of loads.  This was also confirmed in the panel visit to Materials Recovery Facility where it was noted that contamination rates from North London Waste Authority areas was low. Nonetheless, the panel noted that the service continued to ‘drill down’ to identify localities where contamination occurred  and further engage local residents. 

The panel noted that one year on from the new collection system there were still ongoing problems (too many bins on the street and overflowing bins) at one of the case study sites (Milton Road and Milton Avenue, N6).  It was acknowledged that there were ongoing issues with the Miltons (N6) and that the service continued to work with local residents to find a solution.  The panel noted that a further consultation with local residents was planned in April  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5