Gary Robinson, Business Manager from Biffa will be in attendance and give a presentation to the Committee, ‘Biffa Annual Report 2012’.

The Interim Director of Technical Services presented the 2012/13 review of performance of the Environmental Streetscene Services Contract with Biffa. The report updated the Committee on the status of a number of work streams that were endorsed by Committee on 30 January 2012 (minute 63 refers). It also highlighted the progress made since on realising the savings generated from the ‘Biffa Break Clause’ buy out offer accepted by the Council at Cabinet on July 19, 2012 (minute 59 refers). A refreshed “Benefits Realisation Plan” has been produced to reflect the new working arrangements and priorities of the Wirral Council/Biffa partnering arrangement to March 2017.

As a number of budget saving proposals were currently being consulted on, which might result in significant changes to agreed contractual standards, as well as introducing new pressures and risks that would need to be accounted for, a new Qualitative Benefits Plan for 2013-2017 and accompanying KPI suit would be produced in response to any agreed changes and implemented no later than August 2013. A report on this would be brought to a future meeting.

Gary Robinson, Wirral Business Manager for Biffa, gave a detailed presentation to the Committee on the operation of the contract, which included information on

·  Winter working

·  Health and safety issues

·  Customer service

·  Collection performance

·  The Wirral fleet

·  Street cleansing

·  Improved recycling

·  Dog fouling

Mr Robinson then responded to comments from Members, all spillages from bins when being collected should be picked up and he would be happy to investigate further with regard to instances where bins were not always returned to where they should be for those with disabilities. He explained the process that drivers of waste collection vehicles followed if damage was caused to a car and that all incidents were passed on to Biffa’s insurance department. Full approval for the purchase of snow tyres for four vehicles had been given and this had improved the collection performance during the recent cold weather. An extra 700 tonnes of garden waste had been collected which excluded the annual leaf fall. He stated that he would look into the issue of particular areas where detritus might be collecting along main carriageways in the borough.

A Member referred to a key council initiative in respect of tackling pavement parking and Councillor Hale suggested that a distinction needed to be made between parking and driving on pavements as there were some areas were pavement parking was a necessity due to the narrowness of roads.

Councillor Mitchell stated that he was content to note but he could not agree with part two of the recommendation to ‘endorse the work streams….’ as negotiations were still taking place.

Resolved – That this Committee (subject to Councillor Mitchell’s non-endorsement of part (2)):

(1)  Notes the Key Performance Indicator information in Section 2.3 and Appendix 1 of the report and the continued high levels of service to which they relate. 

(2)  Notes and endorses the work streams highlighted for attention in 2013/14 as described in Section 3 of the report, along with any other areas identified by the Committee, to further improve service reliability, customer satisfaction and enhance the environmental quality of Wirral.

(3)  Endorses the revised Benefits Realisation Plan produced (Appendix 2 to the report) to ensure the financial and service quality ambitions for the remaining contract period are achieved.