Attached to the agenda are:

·  Call-in procedure

·  Call-in forms

·  Cabinet Report of 27 June, 2016

·  Cabinet minute 19

Chair’s Introduction

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and outlined the procedure to be adopted in respect of the two call-ins that had been received. Each lead signatory would have five minutes to provide an explanation of the call-in and then the Cabinet Member – Environment would have five minutes to explain the decision that the Cabinet had taken. On this occasion no witnesses had been called by those calling in the decision but the decision taker had called the following witnesses:

·  Mark Smith – Head of Regulation and Environment

·  Andy McCartan – Contracts Manager Environment and Regulation Waste and Recycling, Regeneration and Environment

·  Kevin MacCallum

They each would be given five minutes to read out any statements they may have prepared. The Committee would be invited to ask questions at the end of each of the stages outlined. This would be followed by summing up by the Lead Signatories and the Cabinet Member, a debate and finally the Committee would make its decision.

The Committee then considered the detail of two call-ins of the Cabinet’s decisions made at its meeting on 27 June 2016 on the Domestic Refuse Collection Outline Business Case (Cabinet Minute No. 9 refers.) which was:

  ‘That

(1)  the Outline Business Case set out in the report be approved and officers be requested to carry out further detailed work on the two short-listed options in order to prepare a Full Business Case and recommendations for future domestic refuse collections, to be reported to a future meeting; and

(2)  the proposed approach to public consultation on the shortlisted options as set out in section 9 of the report be approved.’

Councillor I Lewis along with Councillors A Brighouse, C Carubia, P Gilchrist, S Kelly and D Mitchell had called the Cabinet’s decision in as they considered

  ‘that the Cabinet is wrong to consult on changes to the collection of waste in Wirral based upon only presenting two options to improve recycling to the public, including the possibility of moving to a three weekly collection of residual waste.  This decision effectively limits the feedback that the Council could receive from residents on the best ways of achieving 50% or more recycling rates within their communities.  This call in requests that Cabinet engage in a more open and wide ranging consultation on waste management with the people of Wirral over a longer three month period in order to gauge public opinion of the Cabinet’s 3 weekly option and to consider alternatives.’

Councillors L Rennie, T Anderson, B Berry, C Blakeley, E Boult, D Burgess-Joyce, W Clements, D Elderton, G Ellis, J Green, J Hale, P Hayes, A Hodson, K Hodson, I Lewis, T Pilgrim, C Povall, L Rowlands, A Sykes, G Watt and S Williams had also called in the same decision for the following reasons:

‘Whist agreeing with the premise of increasing recycling rates in Wirral the signatories to this call-in are concerned that the limited two options being offered to the public for consultation equate to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3

Councillor Bernie Mooney introduced a report by the Senior Manager (Waste and Environment), which informed that the Cabinet approved the Council’s Waste Management Strategy 2015 – 2020 in December 2015. The Strategy was one of 2 underpinning strategies established to deliver the Council’s pledge to create an ‘attractive local environment for Wirral residents.’

The Cabinet was advised of the requirement to transform waste management arrangements through the Waste Management Strategy in order to achieve targets for recycling. In particular, the transformation of the Council’s waste management arrangements was required to enable the Council to deliver the 2020 and legislative target for achieving 50% recycling of domestic waste.

The Cabinet noted that the Council’s current recycling performance was 37% and, therefore, significant changes would be required to existing arrangements in order to reach 50% by 2020.

Officers had projected that over 16,000 tonnes of current residual (green bin) waste must be recycled in the future to achieve the 50% 2020 target.  The Cabinet had instructed officers to carry out an options appraisal exercise to consider options for future waste management arrangements that would achieve the 2020 target and to present recommendations for future waste management following the conclusion of the exercise.

It was noted that the options appraisal exercise had involved a detailed assessment of a full range of options for the future.  The exercise had centred on a series of workshops to identify waste management system options and to test these against critical success and deliverability factors.

Through the workshop exercise officers had identified a shortlist of two options; these options formed the basis of the Outline Business Case:

It was intended to conduct a detailed technical assessment of the two remaining options in order to prepare the Full Business Case that determined the recommended option for the Council’s future waste management provision.

Appended to the report were:

Appendix 1  –    Waste Management Options Appraisal Longlist

Appendix 2  –    Waste Management Options Appraisal Shortlisting Scoring

Appendix 3  –   UCLAN Wastecosmart European Project and Decision Support Tool 

Councillor Mooney informed that food waste on Wirral was making up 40% of what was being put in green bins.  The way forward was to take it out, recycle it and turn it into methane gas to power the wagons that pick up the rubbish.  There may be some difficulties to iron out and it would be necessary to carry out a public consultation exercise first.  This would commence in mid July 2016 and would run for a six week period.

Councillor Stuart Whittingham informed that he found this concept exciting – bringing fuel back to the Wirral.  There were problems associated with diesel omissions and this approach could provide the answers.  There was still a lot of work to do but the resulting possibilities were endless.

Councillor Phil Davies considered this to be a very important report.  This was a major approach to fulfilling the Council’s responsibilities in respect of climate change etc.  This was an ethical business case to make this borough  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19