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.
Minutes:
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 to be not required and, if so, how the money saved could be used.
It was agreed that officers should check contractual arrangements to determine the position and publish the response on the Council’s web site.
In response to a question about the clearing of dog excrement it was confirmed that the contract provided that this had to be cleared within six hours of having been reported.
Reference was made to the Winter Programme and to whether further clarification could be provided including of arrangements for street sweepers to carry out snow clearing. Reference was also made to the refurbishment of grit bins which was currently under way and the provision and re-siting of additional bins. We asked that a report on the Winter Programme be submitted to the September meeting of our Area Committee.
With regard to Trade Waste re-cycling the hope was expressed that the service offered to traders would be at attractive rates. In this connection we were informed that this was being looked at by a cross party Steering Group and we asked that the membership of the Group be published on the Council’s web site.
RESOLVED:
That the report be noted.