Agenda item

To report on current year-to-date performance of the Council’s waste, street

cleansing and recycling services.

Tom Hemming, Interim Neighbourhood Team Manager, reported on the latest statistics for waste, street cleansing and recycling.  There had been a change to weekly sweeping on residential and some other roads from January 2016 in order to deliver £860,000 savings.  Recent performance had decreased overall but was variable from month to month.  It therefore needed to be monitored closely action taken to deal with areas where performance was falling down. 

Litter performance had previously been meeting the contractual target on a consistent basis.  The Council had moved from twice to once weekly sweeping in January and there had been a drop in performance that coincided with the change, with performance for only one month meeting the target.  However, performance in areas that had not been subject to the changes had also deteriorated.  Targeted action was being taken to remedy the drop in performance.  This included engaging with residents, traders, schools and the organisers of events that are identified as causing litter problems and taking enforcement action where necessary.  More time was needed to evaluate the effect of the service changes.

In answer to a question, it was noted that litter picks differed from street sweeps, which now took place once per week.  Mr Hemming reported that performance in respect of graffiti removal was good.  In respect of fly posting, there was still an issue with window replacement service stickers on shop windows.  There were still counted but not included on performance returns any more.  Fly tipping remained a problem.  The position in Haringey was similar to that in neighbouring boroughs.  Reporting was encouraging and efforts were being made to get a picture of where hot spots were. 

In respect of recycling, performance had gone up from 26% at the start of the contract to around 37%.  However, this was still short of the current target levels.  An action plan had been developed that aimed to address this by promoting behaviour change.  Ensuring that people placed items in the correct bin was important as contamination could lead to targets being missed.  Due to a change in the law and the tightening of criteria for reprocessing, more waste was being rejected for recycling.  Action to address this had also been prioritised and different types of stickers to put on bins were being tried in order to ensure that residents were aware of which bins waste should be placed. 

Panel Members highlighted the fact that a previous Panel meeting had suggested that traders associations be contacted regarding the removal of window replacement stickers.  In respect of fly tipping, it was possible that current levels were due to higher reporting levels, which was a positive development.  Mr Hemming reported that efforts were being made to raise awareness of the issues and it was hoped that levels would go down in time.  There were differences between areas of the borough, with some appearing to be more accepting of fly tipping than others.  It was intended to reduce both fly tipping and reports of fly tipping.

Steve McDonnell, the Assistant Director for Commercial and Operations, reported that the Council could claim money back from the contractor for every rubbish sack that was not collected so it was important that instances of this were reported.  A breakdown of fly tips could be provided for the next discussion with the Panel on waste and recycling statistics.  

Panel Members drew attention to the fact that bins in Chestnuts Park had been overflowing and officers agreed to check them.  In reference to gulley cleansing, it was noted that this was the responsibility of the Highways Service, who had a regular cleansing programme. 

Panel Members asked whether consideration had been given to recycling food waste for compost.  Mr Hemming reported that the composting of food waste had not been considered as it was felt that there would not be a high take up. It was suggested that the provision of free bio-degradable liner bags could help to encourage people to do this. 

It was also suggested that increasing the level of enforcement might assist in reducing fly tipping and littering.  Mr Hemming stated that enforcement had become more difficult due to relevant powers being watered down.  However, the issue was being looked at, especially in respect of houses in multiple occupation. 

AGREED:

That further consideration be given to the option of the composting of food waste.