Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Andrews and Doolan.

There were no declarations of substitute members.

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

*(a)     Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b) Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c) Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d) Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e) Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f) Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 11July 2017 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

None

For members of the public to ask questions relating to any subject on the meeting agenda under Procedure Rule 70.5. Alternatively, the Chair may opt to accept questions from the public during the discussion on each agenda item.

The Chair stated that the order of business would be B2, B3, B1 and B4.

The Chair informed the meeting that the site visit to the Bunhill Power Station has now been arranged for 6 October 2017 and that a request for a site visit later in the evening would be considered so as to accommodate councillors unable to attend due to work commitments.

Kevin O’Leary, Corporate Director, Environment and Regeneration presented the Quarter 1 Performance Report which sets out the corporate performance indicator suite for 2017-18, together with a progress update for indicators relating to Environment over the first quarter of 2017-18.

The following points were made:

·         Members were advised that as a result of a technical breakdown with the Contender software, data on waste collection was not available for the committee to consider. However the Corporate Director, Environment and Regeneration indicated that the information would be circulated to Members after the technical issues had been resolved.

·         In response to a question regarding the health impacts and the group of people that the Council is encouraging into leisure activities, Members were advised by the Corporate Director, Environment and Regeneration that a detailed breakdown of the data would be circulated.

·         Members were informed that Islington was presently the second lowest amongst the London boroughs in terms of residual (non-recycled) waste per household. Its figure of 381kg was below the NLWA target of 413kg. 

·         In response to a question on whether advice or information from the Council was available in relation to alleviating residents’ energy costs, the Executive Member for Economic Development advised that Council was aware of residents experiences with the 6 national energy providers, however it was difficult to convince residents to switch suppliers. Members were reminded that support exists for residents through Council initiatives such as the Warm Home Discount, Debt relief and Energy Doctor and that residents should be referred to the Council’s Energy Advice Team for advice.

Matthew Homer, Waste and Strategy Manager, was present and made a presentation to the Committee. (Copy interleaved).

During consideration of the presentation the following points were made-

·         The Council’s Annual Waste Minimisation and Recycling Action Plan was agreed by Executive on 20 September 2016 with the aim of providing quality services that meets the needs of residents and ultimately increases recycling and reduces the amount of waste sent for disposal via landfill or incineration.

·         Islington Council has a compulsory recycling policy which applies to all homes and includes all recycling streams where a service is offered such as mixed dry recycling, food and garden waste.

·         Committee was advised that the Council’s Waste Minimisation and Recycling Action Plan 2016-17 seeks to achieve a recycling rate of 35.2% for waste from households and to support the NLWA recycling target of 50% by 2020

·         In response to a question about enforcement, the Waste Strategy Manager advised that although enforcement was more practical with street properties than in Estate blocks with communal bins, even here recent legislative changes has made it more difficult to enforce.

·         North London Waste Authority remains the regional waste disposal authority for Islington and six other north London boroughs. In 2016/17 Islington Council’s recycling saved the equivalent of £650,000 in disposal costs as a result of menu pricing.

·         NLWA Joint Waste Strategy 2004-2020 was last updated in 2009 and would  be updated in the context of the NLHPP and the Mayor’s new Environment Strategy

·         Members were advised of the Mayor of London’s Draft Environment Strategy which aims to make London a ‘zero waste city’, with no biodegradable or recyclable waste being sent to landfill by 2025.

·         In response to a question on achieving the Mayor’s strategy of increasing the recycling rate up to 50% by 2020 and 60% by 2030, the meeting was informed that the Mayor’s focus is to be directed on food waste and single use packaging.

·         Members were advised that Islington presently offers a collection of mixed dry recycling to all its residents, a minimum weekly recycling and refuse collections, food and garden waste collections for street properties, communal recycling bins for estates and nightly collections for flats above shops. The meeting was advised of other services such as textile recycling sites, reuse and recycling centre, bulky waste and reuse collections etc.

·         Items collected for recycling end up at the Bywaters facility in Bow from which it is sold off to repressors either in the United Kingdom, Europe and the Far East and made into new products.  With regards to residual waste this ends up at  London Waste in Edmonton where it is incinerated and converted for energy use or composting.

·         With regards to the rate of recycling, the Waste and Strategy Manager acknowledged that organic recycling was quite low and this was due to issues around food and garden waste, however dry recycling was high compared to neighbouring boroughs. The meeting was advised that considering homes in Islington don’t have gardens, the composting rate was quite  ...  view the full minutes text for item 145.

Cathy Cook, Support Manager Resource London, was present and made a presentation to the Committee.

During consideration of the presentation the following points were made-

·         The Local Authority Support Manager from Resource London (RL) advised Committee that RL is a jointly funded partnership programme created by the London Waste and Recycling Board(LWARB) and WRAP which ends in March 2020 and it supports London waste authorities, helping them to achieve recycling targets set by the Mayor of London and the national government.  Cathy Cook informed the committee that Resource London helps to deliver these targets by undertaking service reviews for local authorities, introducing behavioural changes among residents and promoting innovation and development.

·         Cathy Cook highlighted the 4 objectives of Resource London as restricting residual waste, improving the yield and quality of dry recycling, increasing and improving the capture of unavoidable food waste and minimising the amount of waste produced.

·         With regards to innovation, the Support Manager explained that as the aim of local authorities is to increase their rate of recycling RL would work in conjunction with councils’ to focus on certain aspects such as changing their residual collection regime from weekly to fortnightly; focus on flats by using single transparent bags; reduce the size of the residual bins and containerisation.

·         The Support Manager informed Members of recent changes introduced by Camden’s Waste Service in April 2017 with the result that the recycling rate had increased by 11% compared to the previous year.

·         Members were advised that Islington and other London boroughs experience similar challenges with regards to increasing their rate of recycling. Islington has a number of unique characteristics such as having  80% of its housing stock being flats, its diverse and cultural mix population, cuts to central government budgets, all resulting in different approaches to how the Council has to address the challenges of increasing rate of recycling.

·         Members were advised that with regards to the private rented sector, a guidance booklet had been developed, which will help increase the awareness of recycling however there are concerns that landlords still would not provide facilities for recycling in their premises.

·         In response to a question, the Support Manager acknowledged that RL operates on a strategic planning level with waste authorities and has no working relationship with voluntary organisations such as Tenant and Resident Associations.

·         Members agreed that the involvement of TRA should be encouraged as TRA’s providing solutions on issues such as the siting and design of recycling sites would be regarded as ideas of resident and gives a feeling of ownership.

·         On the issue of increasing community engagement suggestions such as having a league table of recycling rates of housing estates or on a ward by ward basis on the Council website and introducing some financial or community incentives was noted.

·         On the issue of overflowing bins especially on estates, the Executive Member for Economic Development acknowledged that some of the council buildings were structurally old and have no recycling facilities, however housing services were in the process of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 146.

The Chair invited comments from Members on the draft scrutiny initiation document.

A suggestion to include Tenants, Residents and a Community Development Team Manager as witnesses was agreed.

RESOLVED:
That the Scrutiny Initiation Document be agreed subject to the inclusion of the above witnesses.

That the work programme be updated prior to the next meeting.