Agenda item

a. Waste Consultation – Andy Conn, (Waste Management Services, Wiltshire Council), will give a brief overview of the Wiltshire Council waste consultation.

b. Library review – Niki Lewis, (Service Director, Wiltshire Council) will give a presentation to discuss how library services should be delivered in the future within

   the Melksham Community Area.

a. Waste consultation

Andy Conn, Head of Waste Management Services, gave a brief overview of the Wiltshire Council waste consultation.

He explained that Wiltshire Council had inherited four different waste collection schemes which meant that changes were required to ensure that the same service was provided to all Wiltshire residents. In addition land fill tax was set to increase from £48 per ton in 2010 to £80 per ton in 2014 and there were strong incentives to reduce land fill use and increase recycling.

He explained that the proposal was to offer each household in Wiltshire an alternate weekly collection for household rubbish and black box recycling (i.e. tins, glass and paper).  There would also be a fortnightly collection of plastic bottles and cardboard recycling, a new service in Melksham and the west of the county. The garden waste service would be retained for the west of the county and offered to residents in the rest of the county on an “opt-in” basis.

He pointed out that the proposal sought to balance the best service possible whilst minimising costs. It should be considered as an “invest to save” scheme with a simple formula of: increase recycling = decrease land fill = decrease land fill tax. It should also be remembered that the cost of the proposal was higher than the current cost but that new services were being offered, and that this was still less than the cost of weekly collections.

The Chairman then invited questions and comments.

In response the following was explained:

• The landfill capacity should be sufficient until 2015 to 2020;
• It was not envisaged that Wiltshire Council would purchase landfill sites because sites were now owned by private companies, not the council. There also was a decrease in demand by the public as well as the private sector therefore less investment was expected in the future, although the Wiltshire clay vale and its mineral extractions sites were likely to attract some interest;
• The kerbside collection of recyclables could be a financially viable option as the contamination rate (mixing of different recyclables) was only of 1% (10 times less than some authorities) which reduced the cost of sorting when reaching the recycling centre, and the risk for the recyclable products of being rejected by the processors. In addition local authorities could face for penalties under a national scheme called the Landfill Allowances Trading Scheme (LATS) and landfill taxes and trading cost were ever increasing;
• A significant proportion of waste was being burned to generate energy. Some of the non-recyclable waste was being sent to the incinerator plant near Slough. A proposal was also being considered for a contract with the MBT (mechanical biological treatment) Westbury plant to produce RDF fuel (Refuse derived fuel) by drying, salting and shredding waste;
• The LGA (Local Government Association) and local authorities, including Wiltshire, had been lobbying supermarkets to reduce the weight and amount of non-recyclable plastic used in packaging; although the outcome may not always be noticeable by the consumer it did matter when weighing landfill waste!

WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) was also actively working to develop sustainable products and use resources in a more efficient way;

• Should the proposal be accepted the provision of local recycling bring sites (village hall car parks, schools, etc) would have to be evaluated. Some sites were so successful that they had to be emptied every other day; Wiltshire Council would aim to maintain as many sites as financially viable to support communities in their effort to recycle.

Mr Conn invited people to take part in the consultation.  Leaflets were available at the meeting summarising the proposals and with detachable freepost slip, on which residents could record their support or opposition to the proposals.

b. Library review

Niki Lewis, Service Director for Communities, Libraries, Heritage & Arts gave a presentation on library services.

Last year, following the budget consultation, libraries and heritage unfortunately had come very low in the list of priorities.

A review of library services was now taking place to help achieve the £500K of savings required from the service’s budget within the next two years. It was also felt that the amount of savings required could increase due to national financial pressures. It was hoped that the cuts would not affect front line services.

A gradual drop in library usage had been noted across the county despite an increase in the number of memberships. For example the Melksham library had seen a drop in usage of 9%, yet an increase of 2% in computer usage. On the bright side Melksham library could take pride in its very successful after school homework club.

The review was looking at library services and how it could be delivered in future in the County. Mrs Lewis encouraged people to take part in the review and use the chance to give their views on how the library services could be delivered in the Melksham Community Area.