Issue - meetings

Purpose:  To agree a way forward in relation to separation of food waste.

Resolved that approval be granted for the introduction of separate food waste collections in the district. 

This decision is not subject to call in as:

·      a delay in implementing the decision could compromise the Council's position.

therefore it will be implemented immediately.

The Executive considered a report (Agenda Item 6) which provided an update on progress made towards the introduction of free, weekly separate food waste collections from households in the district; highlighted potential opportunities, risks and issues for the project; and sought approval to enable separate food waste collections to be introduced.

Councillor Steve Ardagh-Walter advised that capital funding of £900,000 had been provided to enable a separate, additional, weekly food waste collection service to be run from next year. This would enable the Council to save money as it would no longer have to pay additional costs for disposal of food waste and allow residents to dispose of food waste more frequently than at present. To date, the proposal had attracted cross-party support and negotiations with Veolia were drawing to a close with a commitment for funding to purchase the necessary food waste vehicles for a proposed launch of the service in the first quarter of next year. However, the lead time estimates had increased significantly to c. 10 – 12 months for the supply of these vehicles, likely due to the high number of Councils who were planning to introduce similar services in the near future. It was hoped that approval by Executive to the proposal would maintain pressure on the supply chain to enable a launch of the service as originally intended.

A question was asked as to the benefits for residents and the Council by introducing this service. Councillor Ardagh-Walter explained that this would be an entirely new service in comparison to the previous food waste service. The previous scheme saw food waste caddies emptied by green waste vehicles but the new scheme would be run by a specific service independent of green waste services. This would enable communications, publicity and encouragement to be much more forthcoming and for the service to be run on a weekly basis, which was not the case previously.

Councillor Carolyne Culver welcomed the initiative as a positive way of dealing with food waste and asked Councillor Ardagh-Walter to pass on her thanks to Kofi Adu-Gyamfi and his colleagues for their help in answering local queries and for their work on this important initiative. Councillor Culver sought clarification on the planned consultation with the public, how the scheme would work for residents living in flats and what would happen with the organic soil improver that would be produced as a result of the initiative. Councillor Ardagh-Walter said the public consultation had happened in several parts, most recently as part of the Environmental Strategy Delivery Plan, which had achieved a high level of enthusiasm and public support. The key area of consultation and engagement would be immediately prior to launch by communicating through as many channels as possible in order to encourage uptake. With regard to residents living in flats, the detail for collection of food waste had not yet been finalised but the need to make an attractive offer to those residents had been recognised. With regard to the soil improver, the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25