Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, BN17 5LF. View directions

Contact: Helen Burt 

Items
No. Item

17.

Welcome

Minutes:

After welcoming Members, Officers and guests to the meeting, the Chair then welcomed Councillor Pendleton as a new Member of the Environment Committee. He also recorded thanks to Councillor Staniforth for her work as Vice-Chair of the Committee over the past year.

 

18.

Declarations of Interest

Members and Officers are invited to make any declaration of pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests that they may have in relation to items on this agenda, and are reminded that they should re-declare their interest before consideration of the items or as soon as the interest becomes apparent.

 

Members and Officers should make their declaration by stating:

 

a)             the item they have the interest in

b)             whether it is a pecuniary/personal interest and/or prejudicial interest

c)             the nature of the interest

 

Minutes:

Councillor Walsh declared a Personal Interest in Agenda Item 7 as a Member of West Sussex County Council.

 

Councillor Goodheart declared a Personal Interest in Agenda Item 8 as a Member of Bognor Regis Town Council.

 

Councillor Pendleton declared a Personal Interest in Agenda Item 7 as a Member of West Sussex County Council

 

19.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 251 KB

The Committee will be asked to approve as a correct record the Minutes of the Environment Committee held on 10 March 2022.

 

Minutes:

          The Minutes of the meeting held on 10 March 2022 were approved by the Committee. These would be signed at the end of the meeting.

 

20.

ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA THAT THE CHAIRMAN OF THE MEETING IS OF THE OPINION SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS A MATTER OF URGENCY BY REASON OF SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Minutes:

          The Chair confirmed that there were no urgent matters for this meeting.

 

21.

Public Question Time pdf icon PDF 114 KB

To receive questions from the public (for a period of up to 15 minutes)

 

Minutes:

The Chair confirmed four questions had been submitted, which are briefly summarised below:

 

1-4       From Freddie Tandy to the Chair of the Environment Committee, Councillor Edwards, regarding parking at the Littlehampton Wave Leisure Centre/Mewsbrook Car Park.

 

 

(A schedule of the full question asked and the response provided can be found on the Environment Committee Public Question Web page)

The Chair then drew Public Question Time to a close.

 

22.

Start Times

The Committee is required to agree its start times for the year 2022/23.

Minutes:

          The Committee

 

RESOLVED

 

That its start times for meetings for 2022/23 be 6.00pm.

 

23.

Combined Cleansing Services Contract pdf icon PDF 314 KB

This report outlines recommendations in respect of the future delivery of the Council’s Combined Cleansing Services Contract which is due to expire at the end of January 2023.

Recommendations are based on alignment with the Council’s adopted Vision; including a stated recycling target of 55% by 2025 and to ‘ensure climate change and sustainability is at the heart of all council services’. Furthermore, recommendations seek to build on the success of the Council’s recent 1-2-3 food waste trial, and the anticipated direction of Government Resource & Waste Strategy.

The results of an options appraisal which inform the recommendation are outlined in the report, with recommendations provided in full consideration of both current opportunities and industry risks.

 

[40 Minutes]

Additional documents:

Minutes:

          Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Environmental Services & Strategy Manager presented the report to the Committee. He explained the Committee had two choices, one being the recommendation which would bring a change to current services, the other option was to continue with current services for the time being. The recommendation was a move to alternate weekly collections for residual waste, with a bin provided to residents from the council, alongside a commitment to introducing food waste collections at the earliest opportunity when funding was available from the Government. Officers believed this was the right approach which was supported by partners at West Sussex County Council and through the work that Ricardo had undertaken on the council’s behalf. The recommendations sought to build on the success of the councils recent 1-2-3 food waste trial, and the anticipated direction of the Government Resource & Waste Strategy. A weekly residual collection was around £358,000 more expensive compared to an alternate weekly residual collection. The recommendations were based on alignment with the councils adopted Vision; including a stated recycling target of 55% by 2025 and to ensure climate change and sustainability is at the heart of all council services. He highlighted there were around 6000 properties within the District where moving to a fortnightly residual waste collection would be difficult, and the report proposed to keep these properties on a weekly collection until further proposals could be considered regarding how the transition for those properties could be made.

 

          The Environmental Services & Strategy Manager explained that if the Committee decided to retain the existing services, the council would need to move to alternate weekly collection when the Government introduced mandatory food waste collection. This was because there would be no viability or argument for a  weekly residual service in addition to weekly food waste collection, which would be impractical and costly to deliver.

 

          The Chair then invited Sam Pullinger, Category & Commercial Procurement lead for External Partners, Hampshire County Council to address the Committee, who gave a summary of the procurement process and options.

 

          The Chair then invited Steve Read, Director for Environment & Public Protection West Sussex County Council, to address the Committee. He believed that the success of the food waste trial showed that Arun had potential to be one of the UK’s top performing authorities in recycling if they chose the right option for waste collection. He explained modelling and predictions showed moving to alternate weekly collection over the next 3 years would increase recycling levels, and reduce waste disposal significantly. This would be more significant upon the introduction of food waste collection.

 

          The Chair then invited John Woodruff, Ricardo Consulting, to address the Committee. He explained that the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) funding would be in place from April 2024. This would be a contribution from producers to councils for recycling and waste collections. The process for allocating funding had not yet been finalised, but levels of contribution would be based on efficiency of scheme, recycling  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

24.

Bognor Regis Beach Access Working Party - 09 May 2022 pdf icon PDF 232 KB

The Chair, Councillor Worne, will present the Minutes from the first meeting of the Bognor Regis Beach Access Working Party held on 09 May 2022.

 

The Committee is asked to consider a recommendation from this meeting in relation to the Working Party Terms of Reference, Scope, Meeting Dates and Work Programme (Minute 4)

 

[10 Minutes]

Minutes:

[Councillor Needs declared a Personal Interest at the start of this Item as a Member of Bognor Regis Town Council]

 

          The Chair of the Bognor Regis Beach Access Working Party gave a brief update to the Committee and presented the Minutes of the first meeting of the Working Party, which contained a recommendation at Minute 4.

 

          The recommendation was proposed by Councillor Worne and seconded by Councillor Edwards

 

 

          The Committee

 

RESOLVED

 

That 1a) of the Terms of Reference of the Bognor Regis Beach Access Working Party be changed to ‘to consider the issues surrounding the provision of an access to the beach for all in Bognor Regis and to examine the options available for such an access’

 

25.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 121 KB

The Committee is required to note the Work Programme for 2022/23.

 

[5 Minutes]

 

Minutes:

Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Group Head of Neighbourhood Services introduced the Work Programme.

 

It was requested that an interim report regarding HMO waste collections be brought to the October Committee meeting, and a final report brought in January 2023. Other Members expressed a wish for this to be added to the Work Programme and the Director of Services gave her assurance that this request would be looked at as a priority alongside the implementation of the new contract, and what the Government mandated regarding waste collection.

 

It was requested that an update on the tree planting strategy be brought to the Committee in Autumn. The Group Head of Neighbourhood Services confirmed this would be added to the Work Programme.

 

The Work Programme was noted.