Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were tabled for Councillor Judith Skinner and Councillor Anton Dani.  No substitute members in attendance.

To receive declarations of interests in respect of any item on the agenda.

No declarations of interest were tabled.

A report by the Head of Environmental Operations

It is recorded that this Call-In was activated on the 1 November 2019 when the Call-In Form was received which had been signed by Councillors Richard Austin, Peter Bedford, Paul Goodale and Peter Watson.

The Head of Environmental Operations presented the report.  Committee were advised that the recommendations they made at their last meeting on the 24 September 2019 in respect of the Replacement Domestic Wheeled Bin Charges, had not been accepted by Cabinet at its meeting on the 23 October 2019.   In accordance with procedure, members had activated a Call-In of that decision within five working days of that Cabinet meeting.

The Chairman then invited the four members who had activated the Call-In to explain their reasons for doing so, with questions to the Portfolio Holder and Head of Environmental Operations being included within this part of the procedure.  The members addressed the committee in order of their signing of the Call-In form with the reasons and concerns noted below:

1. Concern was noted that following initial adoption of the new protocol it had appeared to have caused confusion and anger to residents who had been unaware of the implementation of the charge.  Indeed some members had tabled their frustration that they too had not been made aware of it being implemented. Furthermore it had been understood that the original intention of having the ‘ability to charge’ had only been introduced to stop residents from abusing the service and was not to be used ‘willy nilly’.  There had been inconsistency in charging whilst other Council’s including the City of Lincoln did provide free replacement bins. 

2. Potential increases in Fly-Tipping across the Borough could arise as a result of residents being unable to pay for replacement bins nor take their rubbish to the Household Waste facility.  The Council would ultimately be picking up the costs of clearing such incidents which would be false economy.  Equally the knock-on effect from fly-tipping could result in potential public health dangers with vermin and disease as residents would simply bag up their rubbish and leave it outside

3. Addressing responsibility for damage it was stated that residents would be charged for vandalism to their bins which they had not caused, citing bins left out overnight prior to collection day as being particularly susceptible to such damage.  How would a householder evidence they had not caused the damage.   In addition, worn bins / end of life bins could be damaged during tipping on the lorry but the actual damage may not be identified until the bins were physically wheeled back from the pavements.  If the damage is not recorded on the Bartec system the responsibility would fall to the resident. 

Alternatively, end of life bins could easily be damaged whilst on the actual lorry and with the current age of the bins, that could result in the Council being responsible for possibly 90% of replacement bins making the charge irrelevant.  If so then what would be the point of the charge?

4. Concern was further noted at the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.