Agenda and minutes

To receive any declaration of interest by any Member or Officer in respect of any item of business.

None received.

To submit a report by the Head of Service (Highways, Waste and Property) in relation to the above.

AN INVITATION HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL TO ATTEND IN RESPECT OF THIS ITEM.

Submitted – the report of the Head of Service (Highways, Waste and Property) in relation to the Waste Collections Options Appraisal.

The Chair welcomed Mr. Adrian Gibbs, Euromia Research & Consulting, Ms. Kelly Thomas, WRAP Cymru and Mr. Andrew Dutton, Biffa Municipal to the meeting.  He further stated that all Members of the County Council had been invited to attend the Scrutiny Committee in respect of this item.

The Chief Waste Management Officer reported that Anglesey’s Waste Management Service has now reached a critical point where a fundamental change in service delivery will be required to meet long term targets.  Major challenges exist in meeting future statutory recycling targets set by the Welsh Government combined with a need to operate services more efficiently due to budget cuts.  The collection and processing recycling materials is far cheaper than collecting and disposing/treating left over ‘black bag’ residual waste.  If a new collection system can be put into place where the level of residual waste can be restricted in some way, this will result in increased recycling and therefore reduce overall costs. 

The Welsh Government has set statutory local authority targets for reuse, recycling and recovery; 58% recovery of municipal waste for 2015/16; 64% for 2019/20 and 70% for 2025/25.  Failure to meet these statutory targets can result in WG imposing fines of £200 per tonne based on the number of tonnes below the statutory target listed.  For Anglesey, this means for every 1% failure in the recycling target set, the Council would have to pay around £80k per annum in fines.  The current recycling performance on Anglesey is estimated to be around 55% for 2015/16. 

To maximise the chances of meeting the 58% statutory recycling target for 2015/16, the Waste Management Section is currently sending some of its residual waste for treatment rather than all to landfill, where some of the ‘back-end’ Incinerator Bottom Ash material produced following incineration can be counted as recycling.  It is hoped that the 58% target for 2015/16 will be achieved due to this method.

The Chief Waste Management Officer further reported that Officers of the County Council have been in discussions with WRAP Cymru Collaborative Change Programme (funded by WG to support local authorities with service design, delivery and strategy), Biffa (the waste collection and cleansing contractor) and Officers from other Welsh local authorities over the last 12 months, to discuss what options exist to bring about the required step increase in recycling outputs.  Most Council’s across Wales are considering options to restrict residual waste further and several have implemented or are in the process of introducing smaller bins or 3 weekly collections of residual waste.  An increasing number of local authorities are also considering 4 weekly collections of residual waste. 

Using WRAP Cymru funding, an experienced external consultant (Eunomia) has been appointed to carry out a detailed options appraisal on different kerbside collection systems and to determine their resultant resources and costs, where the levels of residual waste would be restricted in some way.  A joint  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

To submit a report by the Head of Adult’s Services in relation to the above.

Submitted – a report by the Head of Adult’s Services in relation to the above.

The Head of Adult’s Services reported that the Galw Gofal/Care Connect North Wales Regional Call Monitoring Service is a non-statutory collaboration undertaken within a legal framework.   The collaboration is based on the lead authority model, with delegation of functions to fulfil the obligations of the agreement, deliver the service, including provision of support services IT, Finance, HR, Legal etc., to Conwy using powers in Section 101 of the 1972 Local Government Act, Section 2 of the Local Government Act 2000 and Section 47 of the 1990 Care Act. The commencement date of the agreement was 1 June 2011; the initial period of the agreement is for a period of 5 years, coming to an end on 31^st May, 2016. 

 The Galw Gofal provision provides call monitoring for the following services :-

·        Social Alarms/Telecare/Mobile Telecare with GPS tracking;

·        Telehealth vital sign monitoring;

·        Telephone Check Call Service – Proactive calling;

·        Lone Working & GPS tracking;

·        Carer Cards;

·        Out of Hours services, including Housing Services and property maintenance, Highways and Environmental Services, Public Protection and Social Services EDT etc. ;

·        Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity.

It was noted that the total number of connections at the end of March 2015 was 21,436 including 50 Telehealth customers; a 10% growth in connections since inception in 2011.  The call centre to receive call during the day is undertaken by Conwy County Borough Council and the Isle of Anglesey County Council taking over the provision during night time.

Members of the Committee considered that the Galw Gofal/Care Connect Call Monitoring Service is a worthwhile service and that the agreement should be renewed between the partnerships.

RESOLVED to support the recommendations within the report to continue with the partnership agreement beyond the initial 5 year period.

ACTION : To note that the matter be referred to the Executive for consideration.

To submit a report by the Scrutiny Officer in relation to the above.

Submitted – the report of the Scrutiny Officer in relation to a request received from the Children’s Services for a Scrutiny Member representation on a proposed Children’s Transformation Programme Board (CTPB). 

On the 23 October the request was considered by the Scrutiny Committees Chairs and Vice-Chairs Coordinating Forum and it was deemed appropriate to appoint the Vice-Chair of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee, Councillor G.O. Jones to be nominated as a Scrutiny Member representative but that the second representative should be the Leader of the Opposition Group, Councillor Llinos M. Huws. 

RESOLVED to nominate Councillor G.O. Jones, Vice-Chair of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee and Councillor Llinos M. Huws, Leader of the Opposition Group on the Children’s Transformation Programme Board.

ACTION : As noted above.