Agenda item

To consider a report which sets out the officer response to the Call-In.

Ian Shenton, Executive Member for Environment, Sport and Leisure, addressed the Committee in response to the Call-In.

Councillor Shenton stated the Executive had agreed to the food waste service in January 2018, with a commencement date in 2019. There was no intention to continue to supply caddy liners after the initial batch, which was funded through a one-off capital receipt. In 2020, the caddy liners were made available on request. Then, in 2021, they were supplied again to all households, funded from income from the garden waste scheme. No growth bid was submitted to formalise the funding arrangement. This came to a head in the summer of 2022 when it became clear that funding from other parts of the service was no longer viable.

It was clear that many other councils, which did not provide caddy liners, were able to achieve better performance than WBC. Caddy liners were not material to their high performance. The Executive decision did not constitute a significant change to the service as other materials could be used to line the food waste caddies, as set out in the Executive report. The weekly collection service would continue as normal. Consequently, there was no need to carry out a consultation on the new arrangement.

In the ensuing discussion, Members raised the following points and questions:

After the caddy liners were made available on request in 2020, who made the decision to recommence the supply to all households in 2021? It was confirmed that the decision was taken in consultation with the Executive Member. The decision was taken for the convenience of residents. It was not based on a reduction in performance of the service.

Was the decision to continue supplying the caddy liners without budget provision taken in public? Is there a record of the decision? It was confirmed that the decision was taken internally following discussions between officers and the Executive Member. There was no consultation on this decision.

Graham Ebers confirmed that there was no specific ongoing revenue provision for the caddy liners after the first year of operation. Funding from elsewhere in the service became problematic this year in the context of the financial challenges facing the Council.

If finalised, how will the impact of the decision to remove the caddy liners be monitored and reported? It was confirmed that there was monthly monitoring of the waste tonnages collected. The data would reveal any impact towards the end of the 2022/23 Municipal Year. In the meantime, officers were confident that food waste tonnages would increase and the overall £350k saving would be achieved.

In relation to the application of section 5.4.8 of the Constitution, Andrew Moulton commented that the Council’s legal obligations had been met in line with the relevant Access to Information requirements. It was accepted that not circulating the Executive Forward Plan to all Members amounted to a technical breach of the rules. This was seen as a “one-off” incident. It was confirmed that the Forward Plan could still be viewed on the Council’s website during September. The scale and impact of this technical breach was a matter for the Committee to consider.