Agenda item

The Panel received a report and presentation which outlined the Flytipping Strategy that was presented to Cabinet on 2^nd April and provided an update on waste collection efficiency measures. The presentation was introduced by Ian Kershaw, Client and Commissioning Manager for Community Safety, Waste and Enforcement. The following was noted in discussion of the presentation:

a.    In response to a question around the level of income generated through green waste charges, officers advised that the income targets for year one was £375k and £750k in years two onwards.

b.    In response to a question about how to build civic pride, officers acknowledged that this was a key consideration and that it was important that residents felt a sense of community and pride in their local area. Officers commented that in order to bring about behaviour change, it was important to understand the reasons why people fly-tipped in the first place. Officers highlighted the example of the Great British Spring Clean event that took place the previous weekend.

c.    The Panel sought assurance about the cost of dealing with fly-tipping and how this could be better publicised to residents. In response, officers highlighted that there was no financial incentive to Veolia for higher levels of fly-tipping and dumped rubbish. Instead, Veolia had clear timescales to respond within and financial penalties for failing to meet those timescales. Officers set out that the cost of collecting fly-tipping and other dumped rubbish was around £3m but cautioned that it was spread across a number of waste service budgets and that if there was suddenly no fly-tipping, this would not automatically correspond to a £3m saving.

d.    The Panel commented that one of the main problems was with private landlords and HMO’s and suggested that they would like to see tougher enforcement action taken, with landlords having their licence revoked for egregious breaches. In response, officers advised that they had taken significant enforcement action with landlords over the years and that lessons had been learned over the time that the HMO licensing scheme had been in operation. Officers agreed to provide details on the HMO licensing scheme and how this would help tackle rogue landlords. (Action: Ian Kershaw).

e.    The Panel sought assurances about how officers were ensuring that landlords were communicating waste collection arrangements to their tenants. Officers advised that they had written to every landlord in the borough to advertise the bulky waste collection service. In addition, the Client and Commissioning Manager for Community Safety, Waste and Enforcement advised that he was due to attend the next Landlord’s Forum to set out their responsibilities around waste and how to comply.

f.     In response to the enforcement taskforce set up by LB Newham, as set out in the presentation, the panel sought further information about how much the authority saved as a result of its £1m investment. Officers agreed to come back to Members. (Action: Ian Kershaw).

g.    In addition to the three strands of the Flytipping Strategy set out in the presentation, the panel suggested that there should be a further strand around enablement, to provide easy and simple solutions for residents to do the right thing. The Panel queried whether current arrangements with Veolia could be seen as a disincentive to finding creative solutions due to the cost involved. In response, officers advised that a significant part of the strategy was to improve public perception, as well as tackling actual fly-tipping, and that they would be failing in public perception if they allowed flytipping to go unchallenged.

h.    Members elaborated that they were querying whether having an outsourced waste contract and the financial make-up thereof, actually provided an incentive to residents to dump rubbish as they knew that it would be collected anyway and that in many circumstances this could be the easiest way of disposing of bulky waste.  Officers advised that there had been a lot of money taken out of the Veolia contract over the last four or five years and that despite this the officers maintained a very positive relationship with Veolia. In partnership with Veolia, the Council was able to ensure a flexible and responsive approach to waste management.

i.      The Panel acknowledged that there were no easy and obvious solutions to flytipping and noted that in previous years when the Council had a free bulky waste collection service, around a third of appointments were missed as there was no financial incentive to keep them.

j.      Members suggested that a resident steering group should be set up around waste and flytipping. The Chair welcomed this suggestion and agreed to consider how to best to take this forward. (Action: Chair).

k.    Members enquired whether the Council could use capital funding to set up a waste enforcement task force and suggested that perhaps officers from Newham could be invited to come and talk to the Panel.

RESOLVED

     I.        That the Panel noted the new strategy, associated performance measures and progress on waste transformation savings and efficiencies.