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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, County Hall, The Rhadyr USK. View directions

Contact: Democratic Services 

Items
No. Item

1.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were made.

2.

Litter Strategy / Waste and Collections Policy and Civic Amenity Sites

To consider the Monmouthshire Litter Strategy that aligns to the national litter strategy being developed in conjunction with Keep Wales Tidy.

 

Progress report on:

·       The implications of the new Waste Collections Policy

·       The impact of the introduction of permits to Household Waste and Recycling Centre

·       The impact of the closure of some of the Household Waste and Recycling Centres and the potential direction for these services

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Performance report on Litter Strategy, Waste and Collections Policy and changes to Civic Amenity Site

 

Pre-decision scrutiny had been undertaken early in 2019 on the decision to introduce permits at Monmouthshire Household Waste and Recycling Centres and to implement service changes at some sites.  The committee had also scrutinised the new Waste Collections Policy and the council’s Litter Strategy. The service had planned to review the changes following their introduction.  The committee had requested a performance report be brought to them post-implementation to gauge whether the changes to service delivery has been successful and to discuss any implications on residents that may need to be further addressed. The report outlined performance on the following issues in turn: 

 

·         Progress on the Litter Strategy

·         The implications of the new Waste Collections Policy

·         The impact of the introduction of permits to Household Waste and Recycling Centres

·         The impact of the closure of some of the Household Waste and Recycling Centres and the potential direction for these services

 

Challenge:

 

Litter Strategy

 

The anticipate progress on the Litter Strategy had been subject to some initial delay due to funding streams having only recently been confirmed by Welsh Government.  The service has highlighted how earlier confirmation of funding streams would enable more effective planning for the use of monies to deliver on the Litter Strategy. The committee challenged the officers as follows:

 

·         In terms of defining “litter”, would garden waste that is beginning to present a poor appearance be defined as “litter”?

We are taking the view that “litter” is any material left in the wrong place, so it would be regarded as “litter”.

·         We had concerns that there may be an increase in flytipping as a result of introducing service changes to Household Waste and Recycling Centres. Has this been the case?

·         Flytipping reporting has increased, but we believe this may be due to the perception that it would increase as a result of the changes we have introduced, because we haven’t seen a significant actual increase since the changes were implemented.

·         Welsh Government are currently re-designating some of the rest areas as “layby’s”. Will there be cost implications for us resulting from this change and will Welsh Government be offering us any contribution towards future maintenance of these areas?  Will the toilet block that is unfit for use and is currently closed be removed?

When Welsh Government finishes designating the sites as layby’s, the responsibility of those will fall back to us and there is no suggestion at present of any contribution towards maintaining these areas. We are also unsure what will happen to the closed toilet block.

·         We notice that Llanvihangel Crucorney Environmental Group were invited to attend this meeting but were unable to do so, but how has their work progressed since they reported to this committee?

The programme has gone very well, the group are piloting various stickers on waste bins and are reporting there has been a big reduction in litter following the changes. We will invite them back to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

3.

Next Meeting - Thursday 7th November 2019 at 10am