Agenda item

(Director of Environment and Street Scene) To consider the attached report.

The Director of Environment and Street Scene, John Gilbert, introduced the report  on waste and recycling collection services during Christmas and New Year 2009/10. This report covered the period of disruption during the period of bad weather (snow fall and icy conditions), coupled with the bank holidays closures. Because of the severe weather in January our contractor could not catch up with the delayed Christmas collectons. As it turned out as a district we did very well compared with other authorities, only suspending services for just one day. The steps taken to bring services back to normal were highlighted in the report. The main actions undertaken  to get collection services back to normal were:

a)      Suspend Special Collections (bulky waste item collection) to divert resources to help catch up refuse and recycling collections.

b)      Suspend street cleansing service, divert some crews to grit high streets/main roads and pavements to assist residents. 

c)      Divert remaining street cleansing crews to work alongside refuse and recycling crews.

d)      Suspend normal ‘side waste’ policy and collect any waste placed next to normal collection container until service back to normal.

e)      Street cleansing crews to pile up recycling and residual sacks at easy to access road junctions or the nearest point that a freighter could safely access.

f)        Hire additional refuse freighters and crews in January 2010 to help clear the backlog.

During this time updating information was put on the Council’s website to keep the public informed. Although the primary responsibility rested with SITA, Council officers also went  out to check up on them. During this time there were also problems with the landfill sites and recycling processors which were either closed or inaccessible at various time. This meant that the refuse trucks could not drop off their loads. The Civic Offices were also closed over Christmas which caused a lot of customer frustration over this period. This also meant that no staff were able to update the pre-recorded telephone message that the Council used and members were asked to provide some guidance on staffing over the Christmas period.

Councillor Stallan noted that officers or SITA could not be criticised for the bad weather, the entire country came to a halt during this period. People would understand  about the delays if only they were informed as to what these problems were. There was now a case into looking at not closing the offices down completely over the Christmas period. It may be that a skeleton staff was kept  on for all major services, which would solve the updating problem.

Councillor Breare-Hall said this was the wrong time to open the offices at Christmas due to budgetary cuts . If there were problems with updating the Council’s telephone messages could not a member of staff, who lived in Epping, come in and update it.

Councillor Pond agreed with Councillor Stallan, that there should be a skeleton staff manning the Council over the Christmas period and not just because of the bad weather; or could the staff at Langston Road  answer the phones. Mr Gilbert replied that they were not there to answer the phones but to monitor the service.

Councillor Jacobs commented that if the Council was to seriously consider opening over the Christmas period then Councillors would need to know the costs involved and how it would operate. They needed to explore if the website could be updated remotely from home. Feedback was also needed from other Councils as to what they were doing.

Councillor Mrs Sartin added that answer phones and web pages were just technical problems that could be overcome, and staff coming in should not prove too much of  a problem.

Councillor Chana commented that other authorities have people who stay at home but are contactable for emergencies.

Councillor Mrs Edwards said these were all good ideas but it all came down to costs. The Panel needed to consider costs before they made any recommendations.

            RESOLVED:

(1)   That the initial report on the on the service disruption over the Christmas and New Year period was noted.

(2)   That the Panel requested detailed information on:

a)      the manning of the Civic Offices over the Christmas and New Year break;

b)      the ability to update the website and the answer phone messages remotely;

c)      what other councils do over the Christmas and New Year break; and

d)      amending the various collection streams during adverse  weather conditions.