Agenda and minutes

Venue: Hollybank Room, Public Service Plaza, Civic Centre Road, Havant, Hants PO9 2AX

Contact: Holly Weaver  Democratic Services Assistant

Items
No. Item

18.

Apologies

To receive apologies for absence.

 

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Thain-Smith.

 

19.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 47 KB

To confirm the minutes of the Business and Commercial Services Board held on 7 August 2019.

 

Minutes:

The minutes of the last Business and Commercial Services Board held on 7 August 2019 were agreed and signed as a correct record.

 

20.

Matters Arising

Minutes:

There were no matters arising.

 

21.

Declarations of Interests

To receive and record declarations of interests from members present in respect of the various matters on the agenda for the meeting.

 

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest relating to matters on the Agenda.

 

22.

Chairman's Report

The Chairman to report the outcome of meetings attended or other information arising since the last meeting of the Board.

 

Minutes:

The Chairman reported that he had met with the Head of Strategic Commissioning and an Officer from Democratic Services to confirm an updated 19/20 Work Programme, to be shared with Members of the Board and appropriate Officers.

23.

Bulky Waste Collection Service pdf icon PDF 123 KB

Minutes:

The Chairman handed over to the Strategic Procurement Project Manager to deliver a presentation which answered some preliminary questions posed by Board Members.

 

The presentation given is laid out in Appendix A of these minutes.

 

In response to questions asked by Board Members, the Strategic Procurement Project Manager explained that:

 

1)    the list of items that can be collected is laid out on the Council’s website;

2)    the Council will always encourage residents to reuse items over dumping them in the first instance, and whilst it is a profit-generating service for the Council it is one which would rather promote environmental health over money-making;

3)    fly-tipping is a low-level issue in Havant, and then it generally tends to be bags of waste rather than bulky items;

4)    the price of the bulky waste collection service has increased along with increases in the Consumer Price Index from Norse and wage increases of operatives;

5)    fees and charges of services will be looked at shortly by officers;

6)    items which could potentially be reused by homelessness charities cannot be used if left out in the rain to get wet, although it may be an option to explore in the future;

7)    the benefits system helps reduce the cost of collection bulky waste from a resident;

8)    Hampshire County Council take the cost of disposal including hazardous items

 

In response to questions asked by Board Members, the Norse SE Operations Director explained that:

 

a)    the cost paid by residents for the service is just for the collection, not for the disposal of bulky items;

b)    there was no real seasonal trend in the use of the service as bulky items need to be collected all year;

c)    distance from where the service van can park and where the item can be collected from is a factor in a risk assessment to be considered.

 

The Cabinet Lead for Commercial Services added that it would be worth considering as part of the fees and charges whether the Council could charge customers for items according to weight rather than quantity, and there is only one mattress recycling unit in England.

 

It was AGREED that:

 

i)             Democratic Services would deliver the PowerPoint presentation to all Board Members as a point of reference in answering their questions;

ii)            the Strategic Procurement Project Manager would find out through Customer Services the number of residents who enquired into the price of waste collections and followed through with the purchase of the service after;

iii)           the Strategic Procurement Project Manager would come back to the Board with an update on the use of direct debit on the bulky waste service;

iv)           the Strategic Procurement Project Manager would find out the split of single versus multiple item collection trips.

 

24.

Garden Waste Service

Minutes:

The Strategic Procurement Project Manager continued his presentation, and in response to further questions asked by Board Members explained:

 

     I.        there has been an increase in advertising of the Garden Waste Service supplied by HBC and as a result there has been an increase in customers in the Borough;

    II.        if a bin is lost or stolen then it is down to the customer to pay for a replacement as it is a criminal matter, not a fault of the Council;

  III.        green waste is fully compostable and therefore we encourage use of the service where possible;

  IV.        Bartech is a development by Norse in order to save money long term so in-cab technology comes at no extra cost to HBC;

   V.        reusing bins on different customers may be a viable method of reducing plastic waste rather than creating new bins to become waste if they break, which in itself is a rare occurrence;

  VI.        having multiple waste type bin collection rounds (ie, food waste, garden waste, glass collection, general waste) is not a viable option for the Borough at present.

 

It was AGREED that the Strategic Procurement Project Manager would revisit the Board with an update on the direct debit facility for the garden waste service.