Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Horace Prickett, Alan Hill, Mollie Groom and Ian McLennan.

Councillor Hill was substituted by Councillor Jacqui Lay.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests.

To receive any announcements through the Chair.

That following the Council meeting on 09 July 2013, Councillor Philip Whalley was added to the Committee as a substitute.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public.

Statements

If you would like to make a statement at this meeting on any item on this agenda, please register to do so at least 10 minutes prior to the meeting. Up to 3 speakers are permitted to speak for up to 3 minutes each on any agenda item. Please contact the officer named above for any further clarification.

Questions

To receive any questions from members of the public or members of the Council received in accordance with the constitution. Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions in writing to the officer named above no later than 5pm on 12 July 2013.  Please contact the officer named on the first page of this agenda for further advice.  Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent.

Details of any questions received will be circulated to Committee members prior to the meeting and made available at the meeting and on the Council’s website.

There were no questions submitted.

A statement was received from Cllr Nigel Carter, Devizes Town Council, on the Future Service Delivery Report for Waste Management, the details of which are attached to these minutes.

To scrutinise the Future Service Delivery Model for Waste Management Report prior to its determination by Cabinet on 23 July 2013.

Report will be to follow.

The Committee has a long standing interest in the waste service and is keen to engage with the service over its development.  The Committee was made aware that a report on the future delivery of the service was due to go Cabinet on 23 July and asked that it have the opportunity to scrutinise the report.  The report was not available for the Committee’s meeting on 11 June and, as the next Committee meeting is not until 27 August, an extraordinary meeting was arranged.

It has been necessary to publish the waste report as a supplement to the agenda, as the report was not available at the time of despatch. The report was made available on the publication of the Cabinet agenda. For the purpose of the Cabinet report, it was requested that it be considered by the full Select Committee rather than a Task Group.

The report was introduced by the Service Director (Waste Management Services) and Cllr Toby Sturgis, Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, Development Management, Strategic Housing, Property, Waste. It detailed the drive to harmonization of council waste services following the unification of district and county councils, and the lack of an option to extend the current contract, requiring new arrangements, with the principal options being to tender a new contract or bring the service in-house.

Following presentation of the report, the Committee considered the recommendation to Cabinet and the issues raised by the report, including but not limited to the following:

·         The impact of commercial waste collection was assessed, where it was noted the council is not permitted by law to make a profit from commercial waste collection, and that the council had struggled to meet targets following a raising of the price of collection.

·         The long term nature of the last waste contract was noted with concern by some of the Committee, and it was felt a shorter contract enabled greater flexibility. It was stated in reply that longer term contracts were preferred where significant capital investment was required, which would not be the case with the new collection contract, which was expected to be a far shorter length than the 25 year previous contract.

·         The need for direct or indirect financial penalties in any contract was debated, and it was confirmed that although there were no direct penalties expected in any tendered contract, the ability to not extend an initial contract should the service be below the standard required, was regarded by the Cabinet Member and officers as a sufficient financial penalty.

·         The cost to the council of vehicle purchases in the event of bringing the service in-house was raised in relation to the current climate of austerity and tight budgets, and it was stated that the cost, while additional, was not so great as to make the option unviable.

·         With regards recycling waste collection, the possibility of comingled collection was raised, and it was stated that the rejection rate for such an option was higher than at present, although new technology was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80.

To confirm the date of the next scheduled meeting as 27 August 2013 at the Alamein Suite, Salisbury City Hall.

The date of the next meeting was confirmed as Tuesday 27 August 2013 at the Alamein Suite, Salisbury City Hall.

Any other items of business which the Chairman agrees to consider as a matter of urgency.

There were no urgent items.