Waverley Borough Council Committee System - Committee Document
Meeting of the Executive held on 24/04/2007
Environment and Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committee 17/04/07
APPENDIX B
SPECIAL EXECUTIVE - 24TH APRIL 2007
ENVIRONMENT AND LEISURE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE - 17TH APRIL 2007
Four members of the Environment and Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committee (ELOS) called-in the Executive’s decisions from its meeting on 27th March 2007, relating to the report of the Waste Management and Climate Change SIG. A meeting of the Committee took place on 17th April 2007 and the observations from that meeting are set out below.
The original ten decisions taken by the Executive are as follows:-
It was agreed that:
1. the static Saturday Green Waste Collection service in Haslemere and in Godalming is retained in the ensuing financial year at an estimated cost of £30,000 be met from the £100,000 budget;
2. officers be asked to investigate extending this static Saturday collection service to Farnham and to Cranleigh and to earmark £30,000 from the PEG’s grant for 2007/08;
3. the subscription for the kerbside green waste service be held at £40 per annum £20 for residents in receipt of statutory means tested benefits or for an additional two green bags) for the ensuing financial year, representing a subsidy of on average £7 per household;
4. the demonstrated recycling box lifting trolley be made available to residents on request at a cost equivalent to Waverley’s net cost plus any delivery costs, estimated at £11.75 plus delivery (50% reduction for residents in receipt of statutory means tested benefit) limited to one trolley per household;
5. officers be asked to investigate further the potential to increase the frequency of collections from the cardboard bring sites as well as the number of sites in the Borough and to report to the next meeting of the SIG. The SIG recommend that a sum of £80,000 be provisionally identified for this purpose, £70,000 from the balance of the £100,000 budget and £10,000 from the 2007/08 PEG budget;
6. officers further investigate, with partners, the implications and feasibility of introducing bio-diesel for refuse freighters, battery recycling and kitchen waste collection;
7. Waverley sends a letter of thanks on behalf of the SIG to Veolia staff for their hard work to ensure a smooth service following the recent fire which closed the Slyfield depot, and high winds which closed Albury landfill site last week. Their actions providing alternative tipping facilities enabled an uninterrupted service;
8. the review process be agreed, subject to interim recommendations being presented after six months, as a way of conducting the Climate Change element of the work of the SIG;
9. an opportunity be given for all Members of the Council to view ‘An Inconvenient Truth’; and
10. officers be asked to help Bramley Parish Council find alternative sources of funding for their proposed street lighting replacement project.
ELOS looked at each decision in turn and decided on one of three courses of action, namely (a), (b) or (c), where
(a) is to endorse the Executive’s decision;
(b) is to endorse the decision but submit observations to the Executive on their original decision;
(c) is to propose an alternative course of action, which could be not to implement the original course of action.
(a) With regard to decisions 1, 3 and 6-10, the Committee agreed to endorse the Executive’s decisions and officers will now take action on these.
(b) In terms of decisions 2 and 5, members requested that ELOS should be kept informed, as well as the Special Interest Group, of any statistics collected. Similarly, the Committee asked for further consideration to be given to the list of 12 points raised at an earlier meeting.
(c) For decision 4, the Committee had a number of observations relating to the recycling box lifting trolley. There were concerns about its robustness given the possible weight of the contents of the boxes when full and whether the size of the wheels would have any impact on this. There were health and safety concerns about the use of the trolley and it was suggested that there should be warnings in terms of the method of operation. Members suggested, as an alternative to marketing the trolleys now, that a trial would be appropriate to ascertain how the trolley would fare in different weather conditions and officers were asked to investigate alternative models on the market.
Recommendation
The Executive is asked to give consideration to its original decisions (numbers 2, 4 and 5) in light of the observations raised by ELOS.
Comms/exec/2006-07/352
