Councillor Martin Quaile, Cabinet Member for
Environment, gave an update on the progress of the council’s new
waste collection service. Councillor Quaile presented report E.43
and reminded members that in September 2010, Cabinet had approved a
new waste collection service for the Forest of Dean. Since that time, an implementation project
had commenced and the Project Board and Project Team had met
regularly to discuss progress and to review possible risks.
Furthermore, the Waste Management Cabinet Support Group had been
made aware of progress, with the last update reported on 9 January
2012.
Councillor Quaile said that, following completion of negotiations
with Biffa in March 2011, Cabinet had approved the revised waste
strategy on 10 March 2011. He said that the key service changes
would occur in two stages: the first from 2 April 2012, involving a
charge for the council’s garden waste collection service, and the
second, from 2 July 2012, to introduce weekly food waste
collections. Councillor Quaile believed overall progress had been
good and said that the plans for the introduction of the new waste
collection service were on track.
In
September 2010, Councillor Quaile, (Cabinet Member for the
Environment), the Environmental Services Group Manager and the
Interim Environmental Contracts Manager had attended a Corporate
Scrutiny and Review Committee meeting to present a report that was
due to go to cabinet later that month. At the meeting, the scrutiny
committee had recommended that cabinet consider charging per bin
rather than per household. This comment
had been taken on board and on 16 September 2010 cabinet agreed to
impose a charge per bin rather than per household.
It was
also suggested that those people who had already purchased bins
should be offered a free service for the first year of charging.
The response to the proposal was that, “officers would need to
address the details of the administration of this after a decision
had been made.” On 10 March 2011, cabinet subsequently resolved “to introduce an annual charge of £26 per
bin, plus VAT, for the fortnightly collection of garden waste, with
effect from April 2012, and from April 2013, for those who have
purchased bins.”
Councillor Quaile said that this decision had not been
time-limited. He said that the original purpose of the resolution
had been to ensure the smooth implementation of the new service and
to encourage take-up. He said that as most residents were
longstanding users of the current scheme he proposed that a free
one-year licence for the garden waste collection service be issued
to those households who had purchased a green bin between 1st April
2011 and 1st April 2012. Councillor Quaile said that, during the 10
months from 1 April 2011 to 30 January 2012, the council had sold
222 green bins to householders. Should this demand continue, it was
likely that the total for the year would rise to 267, representing
a total value of £6942.
As a final update, Councillor Quaile said that
in May 2011, it had become apparent that the garden waste
collection service would not be subject to VAT. This would therefore reduce the cost of the
garden waste collection service to £26 per bin, per annum,
involving a saving of £5.20 per year.
Cabinet noted the report and,
RESOLVED to,
a)
Note the progress made on the new waste
collection service project.
b)
Agree that a free one-year licence for
the collection of garden waste be issued to householders who have
purchased (or will purchase) a green bin during the period 1 April
2011 to 31 March 2012, and
c)
Note that the forthcoming charge for the
garden waste collection service will not be subject to
VAT
PDF 128 KB