Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Councillor Catrin Wager

 

To receive a report back from the Cabinet Member on the implementation of the Scrutiny Investigation’s recommendations

 

 

 

 

 

The progress report of the Cabinet Member for Highways and Municipal Services was submitted on the implementation of the Scrutiny Investigation on Waste Enforcement in the following categories:- 

 

·         Immediate implementation;

·         Collaboration in the medium term with other services / partners to implement the recommendations.

 

The Cabinet Member set out the context noting that:-

 

·         She wished to thank the Street Services Manager for all his work in this area.

·         The work will highlight the fact that ensuring good collection arrangements, collaboration with communities and enforcement will maximise the county's appearance for everyone's benefit.

·         As a result of introducing the new collection system in Dwyfor and Arfon, implementation of enforcement powers was postponed because of the importance of providing a proper service first, prior to looking at enforcement.

·         The report gave a great deal of attention to Bangor. Collaboration had commenced with different partners and a Bangor Focus Group was established, working with the Students' Union and the University, and the police were also part of the first meeting.  The Department was also part of the Bangor Image Group, a wider group looking at the city's appearance. 

·         It was proposed to trial QR code stickers in the Upper Bangor student areas, and possibly Hirael as well, and it was hoped that there would be an update regarding this time-schedule soon. 

·         A great deal of work could be done in promoting services offered and to change behaviour.  

·         The Council needed to reach a recycling target of 64% by March this year, with the target then increasing to 70%.  

·         She was eager to develop an engagement and communication programme with the Communication Unit in order to go out into the communities to speak with people and raise awareness and understanding of waste issues.

 

The officers elaborated on the content of the report, and members were invited to ask questions and offer observations.

 

During the discussion, the following observations were submitted by members:-

 

·         The Scrutiny Investigation's recommendations were welcomed.  It was noted that officers had taken notice of the investigation members' opinion and it was deemed that implementing those recommendations would make a difference to the service and the environment for residents.  

·         It was noted that there was a tendency to deviate towards Bangor, however, this was where the most profound problems where due to the student population and the city's geography.

·         It was emphasised that Gwynedd needed to be recycling champions.  This would require further investment, but there was no other option.   The Council undertook very good work in the field, however, it was necessary to do a little bit more again. 

·         Concern was expressed that fines could lead to an increase in fly tipping, especially in rural wards.

·         The good work of the recycling centre at Ffridd Rasus was praised and the head officer was asked to convey this message to the workers.

·         The emergency department who deal with fly tipping and overflowing street bins, was thanked.

 

In response to the above observations and questions from members, it was noted:- 

 

·         That the purpose of introducing fines for disposal on the wrong day, or incorrectly was to target where there are problems, rather than trying to catch people out.  A policy was drafted that encouraged an initial link, with an officer visiting a house where there was a problem to see if it was possible to offer an additional service.   There were 3-4 further steps in the policy and the only people who would be fined would be those who could comply, but refused to do so.  It was necessary to look at individual locations weighing up the risk element and the image the bin conveyed if left on the street. It was accepted that there was no option in many places but to place bins on the street and the service would work with residents in difficult areas to seek a solution.

·         It was recognised that more needed to be done to promote the clinical collection service.   There may be an opportunity to offer a service for reusable real nappies for parents when they register the birth of their child, as well as drawing the attention of carers to this service.

·         The Council would receive a fairly substantial fine if it failed to reach the current recycling target of 64%, and there was considerable work to do to reach the target of 70% by March 2025.

·         It would be beneficial for anyone to come to Caergylchu, or one of the other recycling centres, to see the processes being undertaken there.

·         Several communities in Gwynedd had expressed an interest in being a non-plastic community, and members were asked to contact the service for assistance and support if a community within their ward wished to move in this direction.

·         That the department provided a commercial waste collection service for businesses.   Currently, it was believed that 2221 of the county's businesses received a residual waste collection and recycling service from the Council.   The service sought to improve the recycling percentage, and there was work to be done in terms of e.g. assisting caravan sites to move the agenda forward.   The recycling performance of the commercial service was 48%, slightly lower than the domestic element.    Welsh Government was taking action to improve and place more emphasis on the business sector in general, and this was something that should be looked at next year.

·         Use of the Blaenau Ffestiniog recycling centre by Conwy residents was not being monitored, and this may be something to look at, together with the use of Bangor Recycling Centre by residents from Conwy and Anglesey.   It was also noted that the fact that Conwy charged for the disposal of items at their recycling centres could have an impact on the use made of sites in Blaenau Ffestiniog and Bangor.

·         It was not anticipated that having fines would lead to an increase in fly tipping, but this was certainly something that should be borne in mind.

·         As part of the review of street cleaning arrangements, it would be necessary to invest in multi-purpose bins, that would allow the sorting of paper, cans and plastic, in order to recycle these materials.

·         That placing street bins in lay-bys could be problematic as this encouraged people to dispose illegally around the bins. The message was that people should take their litter home and place it in the correct bin, however, this was something to review when moving forward with the street cleaning agenda.

·         Re-introducing community skips scheme was not an option due to the regulations of Natural Resources Wales regarding permits etc, and although skips had been an useful resource in the past, they had been misused.

·         The bulky refuse service was an opportunity for residents who cannot get to recycling centres to dispose of items. The Council offered this as a service once every fortnight and a collection for up to 5 items at a time was permitted for one fee of £25. Over 4000 requests were received a year, and the bulky items were recycled, this was different to what used to happen to the materials in the community skips that went to landfill.   It was explained that people could organise a bulky refuse collection via the Gwynedd app and it was noted that it was proposed to give more publicity to the service available.

·         Dependent on the success of the trial with the QR stickers, the stickers may be placed on bins in general, and to also discuss this type of scheme with takeaway shops etc. 

·         That discussions had taken place with businesses in Bangor in an effort to encourage them to use less polystyrene in food the packaging, there was also a role within the community to work with businesses regarding this. 

 

RESOLVED

(a)  To accept the report and to note the observations.

(b)  To request that the service makes arrangements for committee members to visit Caergylchu to learn more about the processes that are undertaken there.