The Director of Technical Services submitted an update report on the current position with the Environmental Streetscene Services Contract and the development of the service, and invited Members to recommend 2011/12 work stream priorities.

He set out the contract management framework and reported upon progress in relation to the five partnership work streams agreed by the Waste Partnering Board for implementation in 2010/11:-

  -  Street Cleansing: Improving Environmental Quality with particular focus on Litter and Detritus

 -  Compaction & Contamination of Collected Co-mingled Recycling – Risk Reduction including Waste Reduction

 -  CRM Springboard Integration

 -  Review of the Severe Weather Contingency Plan

 -  Biffa Environmental Policy/ Sustainability Plan

Other key achievements and improvements to the collection infrastructure that were addressed during 2010 included background preparation for the assessment and implementation of a ‘kerbside’ recycling collection service to those multi occupancy properties on bulk bins and hard to reach properties on black bags, who currently do not receive a service, and continued roll out of recycling collections to all Council offices (further details of these initiatives were contained in agenda item 6 “Recycling and Waste Minimisation Action Plan Update”).

He provided a full list of contractor performance indicator results for 2010 (Appendix 1) indicating that all performance figures had shown improvements when compared with the corresponding figures for 2009.

As part of the Gateway review process, the benefits from the procurement of the new waste contract were determined and subsequently monitored by the partnership.  An updated benefits realisation report was detailed in Appendix 2. 

Following discussions at the Partnering Board, the following work streams were proposed as the focus of areas of improvement/progress in 2011:

-  Street cleansing (including fly tipping) (continued from 2010).

- Springboard phase 2 integration – bin deliveries, fly tipping (including other non-scheduled cleansing), street cleansing and bulky waste collections (continued from 2010).

-  Compaction and contamination risk reduction – further Future Jobs Fund initiatives and vehicle overweight/compaction initiatives amended from 2010.

-  Continued development of Severe Weather Contingency Plan (continued from 2010).

-  Biffa Environmental Policy/ Sustainability Plan (continued from 2010).

Members were invited to put forward suggestions for any new or additional partnership work streams, in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Environmental Streetscene Services Contract. 

The Director introduced Roger Edwards, Chris Halfpenny, and Mark Hodkinson, from Biffa’s senior management team who gave a presentation on progress and key achievements. The presentation covered a review of the contact over the last year, progress on the individual work streams, health and safety issues, and bad weather disruption.

Mr Edwards responded to questions from Members concerning the issues raised in his presentation.

The Chair referred to complaints received from his constituents regarding the bad weather disruption to bin collection services.  He pointed out that some neighbouring authorities had maintained their bin collection services during the bad weather and he could not remember any previous disruption to Wirral’s bin collections on this scale. He emphasised the need to develop contingency bad weather plans and provide a far better service.

There was general discussion during which members endorsed the Chair’s comments and identified problems associated with missed bin collections within their wards during the periods of bad weather.  Members also highlighted the need for improved communications between officers and contractors to deal with referrals for the clearance of leaf mold and blocked drains e.g. the Rings Road/Heath Road area, Bebington, and Eastham Village.

Resolved – That the Committee:

(1)  Note the progress of the contract during the past year outlined in the report;

(2)  Approve the work stream topics outlined in section 7.1 of the Director’s report for inclusion in the development programme for 2011/12