Issue - items at meetings - Waste Services

This report focusses on the collection of household waste and sets out a number of policy changes to consider as part of the budget process.

Resolved:

i. Noted the report and agreed to introduce a garden

waste subscription service at a fee of £46.50 per bin, and instruct officers to begin work so that the Council can introduce an annual fee for kerbside garden waste collections in York;

ii. That the Council should offer a 50% discount on the subscription rate for the garden waste service for residents who may struggle to afford the service and use Council Tax Support as a way of applying this.

Reason: To determine how the garden waste collection

service will be delivered in the future.

iii. To delegate authority to the Director of Transport, Environment and Planning and in consultation with the Chief Finance Officer, to use the Waste Reserve and take all steps necessary to procure, award and enter into contracts to deliver and effectively implement the new service;

Reason: To enable resources, capital investment, and

contracts to be put in place in a timely manner to ensure the garden waste subscription service can be effectively delivered.

iv. Approved, as a one-off, a free collection of garden waste bins from those households not wishing to subscribe to the garden waste collection service (it is likely residents will need to register for this collection).

Reason: This will facilitate the collection of any unwanted

garden waste bins (green wheelie bins) which will be hard for residents to dispose of. The Council will make appropriate arrangements for these unwanted bins to be collected and recycled.

v. To formally adopt the Waste Policy which is included as Annex A to the report with a view to implementing the Policy from April 2024;

vi. To delegate authority to the Director of Environment Transport and Planning in consultation with the relevant Executive members to update the Waste Policy and prepare Terms and Conditions.

Reason: To ensure there is a formally adopted waste policy

that is clear for waste teams, members and residents and it reflects any decisions e.g. a subscription scheme for garden waste collections.

vii. To delegate authority to the Director of Environment,

Transport and Planning to transfer properties from

‘bags to bins’, implementing the scheme in affected areas.

Reason: To enable residents to benefit from waste collections

via wheeled bins as opposed to bags. This will help with waste containment, reduce windblown litter, increase recycling and have health and safety benefits for collection crews.

viii. To note that the service does need to undertake a round optimisation exercise to ensure that collection rounds are efficient as the city continues to expand with additional households requiring waste collections. To delegate authority to the Director of Environment, Transport and Planning to implement an optimisation of collection rounds in consultation with the relevant Executive Members.

Reason: To ensure collection rounds are as efficient as

possible and vehicle miles travelled are reduced (it should be noted that this will lead to a change of collection day for some residents at the point at which the new rounds are adopted).

ix. To note that in parts of ... view the full decision text for item 76

The Director of Transport, Environment and Planning introduced the report confirming that the Council’s green waste collections were a discretionary service, which currently was not available to all residents. He noted that many other Local Authorities charged for a garden waste collection. It was confirmed that the proposed subscription fee was in line with the current charge by North Yorkshire County Council and that the Executive were asked to consider whether a 50% discount should be provided for those on Council Tax Support. Finally Executive was asked to approve the creation of a program to move homes from bags to bins and to go out to procurement for city centre collections currently ran by St Nick’s.

The Executive Member for Environment and Climate Emergency welcomed the opportunity to move more households from bags to bin collections. She noted that optimisation of routes would also reduce the Council’s emissions. The Executive Member stated that the garden waste subscription service was not a policy the Executive wished to undertake, however, they intended to prioritise spending on statutory services. It was noted that there was no evidence of additional bonfires or fly tipping in local authorities with charges and that the Council would continue to encourage people to compost at home wherever possible. Finally, it was confirmed that any garden waste that went into general waste collections would be sorted out at Allerton Park and used for biofuel.