Agenda item

Following the receipt of a Notice of Call-in within the required deadline, from Councillor Gartside calling in the decision of the Cabinet set out in Minute CA.04 of the meeting held on 16 July 2014, a meeting of the Committee has been convened in order to consider the matter in accordance with the reasons set out on the Notice of Call-In.

In considering the matter, the options available to the Scrutiny Committee are as follows:

1. The Scrutiny Committee decides not to offer any comments on the Notice. In this situation the decision of the Cabinet will stand.
2. The Scrutiny Committee decides to offer comments or objections, which will be referred back to the Cabinet at the meeting arranged for 20 August 2014.
3. The Scrutiny Committee may refer the Notice, without comment, to the Council. The matter will then be considered by the Council on 10 September 2014 (a standard item appears on all Council summons to consider referrals from Scrutiny Committees). Any comments or objections from Council will be referred back to the Cabinet at the earliest opportunity, in accordance with the Council Constitution.

The Cabinet will be required to consider any objections and comments but will not be bound by them unless..."it is contrary to the Policy Framework or contrary to or not wholly consistent with the Budget" (Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules - Paragraph 16(g) of the Council Constitution).”

The Scrutiny Commission considered a called-in decision of the Cabinet meeting held on 16 July 2014 in accordance with the Council Constitution.

The Cabinet had made the following decision:

1.     That approval be given to adopt Bury Council’s Zero Waste Strategy,  including the 10 Strategic Objectives as detailed in the report submitted.

2.     That approval be given to the proposed changes to the waste collection service.

3.     That approval be given to an ‘invest to save’ initiative to include a capital spend of up to £213,400 and one-off implementation costs of £189,700 to introduce the changes. These costs will ultimately be self-financing, but initially are to be funded from loan and reserves as detailed in Section 4 of the report submitted.

A Call-In Notice had been submitted by Councillor Gartside, Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, setting out the reasons for the Call-In of the decision. A summary of the reasons is set out below:

·           Inadequate consultation

·           Adverse public reaction

·           Potential health hazards

·           Arrangements for Christmas and New Year

·           Request for further clarification over provision of extra grey bins

·           Assurances sought in relation to whether staff resources were in place to deliver the new regime

·           Suggestion for phased roll out

·           Further negotiation required with GMWDA to expand range of recyclables collected

·           Level of consultation with Government

Councillor Gartside invited questions and comments from the Members of the Committee and the following issues were raised :-

·           In response to a question from Councillor Tariq, the Cabinet Member confirmed that savings to the Council as a result of the previous switch to fortnightly collections had resulted in annual savings of £4m.

·           With regard to the issue of nappies, the Deputy Cabinet Member stated that these should be wrapped up and sealed before being placed in the grey bin Where parents were struggling, individual cases would be looked at and an extra bin provided if necessary.

·           Councillor Nuttall raised the issue of properties currently without a brown bin. The Cabinet Member reported that solutions were being sought for approximately 600 properties in rural areas of the borough and stressed that 3 weekly collections would not be introduced to these residents until the issue is resolved.

·           In response to a question from Councillor O’Brien concerning flats, the Cabinet Member explained that the vast majority of such properties with communal bins  would remain on fortnightly refuse collections.

·           The Deputy Cabinet Member highlighted the issue of supermarket packaging and stressed the need for regional lobbying on this issue.

·           Councillor Daly highlighted the rise in recycling rates since 2011 and suggested that if this level of increase was maintained, along with the anticipated rise as a result of the work of the education awareness team, the Council could still achieve its recycling targets. The Cabinet Member explained that the rate of recycling had levelled off at about 47% and to achieve its aim of 60% by March 2016 further measures were required.

·           Councillor O’Brien highlighted the importance of education in relation to recycling and stressed the need to engage with school children and hard to reach areas of the community.

·           Councillor Daly enquired whether the Council had considered adopting the model used by Trafford which provided smaller grey bins which were collected fortnightly. The Cabinet Member confirmed that this scheme had been considered but capital costs to purchase the bins and implementation costs equated to approximately £1.5m.

·           Councillor Daly further referred to the fact that Trafford collect brown bins weekly and offer extra bins to larger families of 4 or 5 people. Councillor Isherwood highlighted the additional cost implications of these measures but confirmed that all proposals would continue to be looked at going forward.  

·           In response to a question from the Chair, Councillor Gartside, the Cabinet Member stated that extra resource would be put in during the initial implementation of the changes and stated he was confident the Council could deliver the changes effectively.

·           The Chair, Councillor Gartside highlighted the lack of public consultation and enquired about evidence that suggested there was unlikely to be an increase in vermin as a result of the proposals. The Cabinet Member stressed that all food waste would continue to be removed on a fortnightly basis.

·           In response to questions from the Chair and Councillor Daly in respect of incentive schemes for recycling, the Cabinet Member reported that all schemes continued to be looked at but stressed that restricting the capacity for residual waste offered the most effective means of increasing recycling rates.

·           Councillor Gartside highlighted a lack of consultation with the Department for Communities and Local Government who were supportive of weekly collections. The Cabinet Member stressed that residents would continue to have a weekly collection, but stressed that reducing the collection of residual waste offered the best way of increasing recycling.

·           In response to a question from Councillor Nuttall the Cabinet Member confirmed that the proposals were not a precursor to four weekly collections.

·           With regard to the issue of enforcement the Cabinet Member confirmed that powers already existed but stressed that education was the chosen route to deal with persistent offenders.                             The Deputy Cabinet Member addressed the issue of extra waste at Christmas time and highlighted that much of the extra waste generated would be recyclable.                                       

·           In response to a question from Councillor Daly, Mr David Taylor from GMWDA  reported on the work done by the organisation to rationalise waste recycling centres and reduce the amount of waste going into landfill which would result in £1.6 m being saved across 9 Authorities, including Bury, during the next year.                       

Delegated decision:

That, having considered the points raised in the Notice of Call-in, this Committee does not offer any comments to the Cabinet in respect of Minute CA.xxx  Zero Waste Strategy and Sustainable Waste Collection Service.

(Note: Councillors Daly, Gartside and Nuttall requested that it be recorded that they voted against the decision on the above item.)

(Note: Councillors Carter, Cummings, Holt, O’Brien and Tariqrequested that it be recorded that they voted for the decision on the above item.)