The Chair introduced the item
and invited the Director of Streets & Environment to address
the Panel.
The Director of Streets &
Environment conducted a presentation to the Panel, which can be
found via the following link: https://civico.net/croydon/meetings
In response to questions from
Panel members, officers informed the Panel that:
- The Council offered a
bulky waste collection service that was chargeable to residents and
for residents who lived in tenancy properties there was a bulky
waste clearance service. Residents needed to leave any waste which
they wished to be collected in a location that was accessible for
the cleanup crew.
- Officers were in
dialogue with bidders to find a more sustainable solution that
reflected the needs of the Councils communal and curb-side
properties.
- The food waste
service was on offer to all tenants, officers needed to work with
the managing agents to ensure that the aspirations of the residents
were met.
- Croydon was in the
top quartile in London for the highest recycling rates.
- Under legislation it
was now mandatory to organise weekly segregated food waste
collections for all residents.
- Officers would
identify which housing estates could accommodate additional bins
and officers would liaise with their service providers to ensure
that weekly collections were undertaken as part of the core
service.
- Officers were aware
of all the food waste collections from the communal and curb side
properties.
- 23% of
Corydon’s general waste contained food.
- Residents were
required to present their textiles alongside their waste
collection. The refuse crew had a cage where the textile bags could
be deposited.
- If the textile
collection was missed, then an ad-hoc collection would need to be
arranged.
- If the cage for
textile collections was full then the collection crew would call
their supervisor who would then empty the cage so that the
operatives could continue to collect.
- The cages containing
the textiles collection were emptied daily.
- The fly tipping
strategy was under review as it was currently
was reactive service.
- Officers felt as
though they had been a victim of their own success in the past as
the quicker that they removed fly tips, the quicker they would
re-appear. The fly tipping consisted of discarded domestic waste
and contractors had been instructed to clear all fly tips as they
were reported, however, the volume of fly tipping had increased.
This was a national issue that needed to be addressed as the
Council spent around £100,000+ a month to clear fly
tips.
- Prior to entering
their current procurement strategy, officers undertook a borough
wide consultation with residents through online surveys and
resident drop-in sessions and officers received over 3000 responses
back on their waste and street cleansing service. This was done
prior to officers finalising their procurement
strategy.
- Officers would make a
recommendation to cabinet on whether to award a contract to the
preferred bidder.
- Needles for
self-administered injections needed to be collected by the Council,
this was free service for residents. If the medication was
administered by a third party, then it would be their
responsibility to dispose of the waste.
- Officers acknowledged
that missed collections had a significant impact on households and
informed the Panel that they now had a fully resourced client
services team.
- If a resident had a
missed collection, they had 48 hours after the day of collection to
report the missed bin collection. The client services team would
review the statistical data to look for a trend in the reported
missed collections.
- For disputes with the
waste collection crew regarding the accuracy of reported
collections, the service provider was required to provide an
assured collection for 6 to 8 weeks. An assured collection required
the service provider to confirm on their devices that for every
collection, this meant that the collection crew would only be miss
a collection if the bins were not presented or contaminated. This
would be logged onto the system and their supervisor would then
inspect and attend on the day.