* One of the new trolibocs at the centre of problems.
Denbighshire County
Council is to pay for extra vehicles and staff at a cost of over £2m to help
overcome major problems created by its troubled new household waste collection
system.
Since its
introduction at the start of June there has been a catalogue of problems with
late or missed collections right across the county, including Llangollen.
At a special meeting
of its cabinet yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) members agreed to approve the purchase
of eight new vehicles plus taking on eight extra drivers and 11 more loaders in a bid to
ensure the service can be delivered on a sustainable footing.
The cabinet was
considering a report from the council’s Corporate Director: Environment and
Economy & Head of Highways & Environmental Service which said that on
June 3 this year the council implemented a new waste/recycling service.
And it adds: “It soon
became apparent after the roll-out of the new service that some of the
assumptions were flawed.
“The main issue being
some of the daily recycling rounds had been designed with too many properties
requiring collection. This meant we were seeing several rounds per day not
completing, resulting in large and unacceptable numbers of missed collections.
“Without committing
additional resources the new service cannot be delivered successfully and
sustainably and we will continue to spend significantly more on inefficient
short-term day-to-day decisions to ensure missed collections are
minimised/corrected.
“The day-to-day
management decisions since the roll-out have focused on the hire of additional
vehicles, increase in the use of agency staff, and the use of overtime for
existing staff.
“In order to put the
new waste/recycling rounds on a sustainable footing additional recycling rounds
are required. The original model as rolled out was based on 20 rounds per day.
The number of additional rounds required ranges from 6 to 8 rounds depending on
the day of the week.
“This requires the
purchase of an additional eight vehicles at a capital cost of £1.299m and
additional drivers and loaders to operate the vehicles."
Cabinet was also asked to approve an additional £1.067m of revenue costs in order to ensure the service change can deliver as planned on a sustainable footing. This includes the revenue costs for the prudential borrowing for the vehicles.
The report added: “If this additional
budget is approved, then we can immediately plan to implement the necessary
changes, and the introduction of the additional rounds can commence within
week’s of today’s Cabinet meeting.”
Members were told
that the additional cash needed to implement the plan would be raised through borrowing.
At the start of yesterday's meeting the lead member responsible for recycling, Cllr Barry Mellor, said: “We
all accept that the new service hasn’t worked as well as we wanted it to.
“We now understand why
it hasn’t worked and what lessons need to be learned.
“We used temporary resources
to address the problems – agency staff and hired vehicles. However, we need a permanent
solution in place to ensure the service is on a sustainable footing.”
Tony Ward, the
council’s corporate director for the economy and environment, admitted: “We
didn’t design enough recycling rounds into the new service. The number of
rounds needs to be 26 to 28 rounds per day depending on the day of collection.”
He added: “We now
have experience of what happened. We are working on the basis of real evidence
rather than on assumptions.
“We are looking at every
single round on every day and concentrating on those rounds that haven’t worked
to make sure that they do.”
He said he believed that the new business model would allow the council to hit its
statutory recycling targets set by the Welsh Government.
During a discussion about those who had paid for green garden bin and trade waste collection but not
received a proper service for four months, Councillor Terry Medies suggested
that as a gesture of goodwill they should be given a four-month holiday on their direct
debit payments from last December to March.
Tony Ward said that
although this was an issue that needed to be addressed compensation wasn’t an
issue for this particular meeting.
Chief executive
Graham Boase said it had been a difficult time for everyone – residents officers
and councillors but added: “We’ve tried to be open and honest but we will learn
from our mistakes.”
At the end of a lenghty debate the new recycling model was approved by the cabinet.
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