Agenda item

The report of the Chief Officer Environmental Services is to provide the Outer North West Community Committee members with an update on refuse collection and the progress of the route review.

The report of the Chief Officer Environmental Services provided the Community Committee with an update on refuse collection and progress of the route review.

The Committee were informed of the following points:

·  The service had met with Councillors in September to share the design for the new routes and get feedback on these designs. It was noted that currently the service is speaking with the crews, however there was limited ability to change the designs at this stage, it was more to fine tune the route designs.

·  The new routes will go live in late February 2024. Communication will be sent to residents prior to the go live date. Councillors would receive advance notice of any communications being sent out. It was noted that in the communication about new routes this would include new days for collection and information on what can be put in the bins.

·  It was noted that there are no issues for the Outer North West area.

Responding to questions and comments from the Members the Committee were provided with the following information:

·  The main reason for the route review was to take account of newbuild estates across the city; there was to be no cutting of routes.

·  It was recognised that there may be some issues at the beginning. However, the same crews would be covering the same main areas, so will know the routes and any difficulties there may be.

·  As the new routes start, there would be extra assistance from the crews of the brown bins as this service would not start until later. It noted that there would be little impact on the residents.

·  Work was ongoing to improve the end of day sheets, and the use of the in-cab technology should help with this as an additional tool for the updates. Members were advised that in-cab technology must be used as part of the job description and chargehands are now accountable for cab units. Staff would be trained to use the technology.

·  Smaller wagons were available for use on the smaller narrower streets. Currently the service has 3 hard to access vehicles and this will be up to 4 soon. It was noted that for difficult to access streets the day of collection may change so that the smaller wagons can be used.

·  When the new routes start it was recognised that there may be an increase in calls or complaints to the service. Therefore, as the customer service team is small the change project team will be helping with the calls for 4-6 weeks.

·  Refuse collection routes will be linked to Community Committee boundaries. Ward Members will be dealing with the same team leader in future.

·  Garden waste routes are reviewed every five years.

·  Members suggested that liaison with other departments was crucial to assist with issues such as overgrown vegetation if this was a solution to missed bins. It was noted that any difficulties on collection routes can be logged on the in-cab technology.

The Chair suggested that the Refuse Service be invited to attend the Community Committee at its meeting on 11^th March, to provide an update on how the new routes were progressing.

Councillors requested an invite to join crews on collections.

RESOLVED – To note the content of the verbal presentation from Environmental Services.