Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor T A Bond, D R Friend and D A Hawkes.

The Democratic and Corporate Services Manager advised that no notice had been received for the appointment of substitute members.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members in respect of business to be transacted on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members.

To receive a presentation updating Members on Veolia’s performance and the recovery plan.

The Chairman welcomed members of Folkestone and Hythe District Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee to the Chamber who were holding a simultaneous co-located meeting with Dover District Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee on this matter.

The Committee received a presentation from representatives of Veolia that covered the following points:

·         Performance in Dover District and Folkestone and Hythe District

•       That performance was currently 99.49%

•       That currently 78.57 bins were missed per 100,000 down from a peak of 144.33.

·         Lessons Learnt

•       Members were advised that there had been some analytical errors in the route scheduling which had not reviewed as much as it should have been in hindsight.

•       The Echo system had also been introduced too quickly with staff not being given enough time to learn it.

•       That the delay in ordering the new vehicles had impacted on performance as the existing vehicles were not all right for the new specification. However, all but one vehicle had now been replaced.

•       The tonnage growth during lockdown had been far greater than expected with eight years of expected tonnage growth taking place in a single year.

·         Addressing issues (including driver shortages and recovery plan)

•       The need for more trained HGV drivers. Veolia had successfully recruited 22 drivers since the start of the driver shortage and had offered HGV driver apprenticeships.

•       That the two districts were in different positions in respect of the current schedules. For the Dover District a pilot programme would be introduced to deal with the issues affecting narrow, ultra-narrow and rural collections as well as resolving issues with non-aligned communal collections. The second stage would deal with the issue of unbalanced days (particularly Tuesdays and Fridays) in early 2022 so that the rounds were better organised and it would be clearer to residents when their waste would be collected.

·         Schedule of improvements

•       273 bulk communal bins would be replaced with 520 new containers as part of a bin exchange programme. This would amount to a reversion to the previous model for communal collections that would offer a more regular, reliable service that would be clearer for residents.

•       New routes would mean that fewer vehicles would be required to pass households without collecting which would reduce confusion amongst residents and vehicle movements would be reduced resulting in fewer emissions.

•       Collections would also be made by local crews with greater knowledge of their areas.

•       The collection routes would be rebalanced to solve workload issues – particularly relating to Tuesdays and Fridays.

·         Mitigating Risks

•       The crews now had a better knowledge of the Echo system

•       The new vehicles had arrived

•       Core rounds would be supplemented with additional resources to support changes

•       Greater resilience, particularly in respect of the pool of available HGV drivers. Crews would have both a driver and a driver/loader on them to increase resilience.

•       Learning from the issues of previous schedule changes – particularly in respect of communications

•       The rounds have been reviewed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 91.