Agenda and draft minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were noted from Cllrs Carlill, Andrew Carter and Simon Seary. However, Cllr Simon Seary joined the meeting later.

To disclose or draw attention to any disclosable pecuniary interests for the purposes of Section 31 of the Localism Act 2011 and paragraphs 13-16 of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests were made at the meeting.

The Chair welcomed everyone to this special consultative meeting in relation to bin collections and street cleansing. The meeting had been called to discuss the issues within the outer west area. Members wished to voice their concerns to the service and look at real solutions for the area.

To facilitate discussions between the Outer West Community Committee, and the Communities, Housing & Environment Service, relating specifically to environmental issues relevant to the Outer West Community Committee area.

(Report attached)

In attendance for this meeting were:

·  James Rogers – Director of Communities, Housing and Environment

·  John Woolmer – Chief Officer Environmental Services

·  Jason Singh - Head of Service Environmental Action

·  Sean Flesher – Chief Officer Parks and Countryside

·  Chris Chamberlain – Area Manager

Officers acknowledged that there was a number of issues and challenges with the key services, bin collections and street cleansing. The service wanted to work with Ward Members to address matters and agree solutions which are sustainable.

It was recognised that the current routes were designed many years ago, about 2010. The city has changed significantly since then with numerous new developments. However, there has been significant work undertaken to review the routes so that they are effective and efficient across the city. The service is in the process of having a new depot built which should be operational by early 2022, this is essential for the new routes to work.

Prior to the pandemic the service was having issues with access to a number of streets, due to parked cars or narrow streets. The service has been trying to implement a number of Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO’s) to address the issue of parked cars so refuse vehicles can access streets. However, this has been impacted by Covid.

Covid has been a challenge to the service trying to continue providing a service working within all the restrictions, including how many people are allowed in a cab, staff who develop symptoms then having to stand down crews, this has been a challenge on a daily basis.

The Director of Communities, Housing and Environment, said that he was immensely proud of the way that the services had kept running to deliver a service to the city. It was noted that the service collect on average 67,000 – 87,000 bins every day across the city.  Since the pandemic started and as people spent more time at home, there has been a significant increase in the amount of waste that is being collected, this is still being seen currently, and it was the view that this would not change as we move forward.

It was noted that there had been significant new developments across the city that were not part of the routes and this had added to the workload.

Many of the staff have gone above and beyond to deliver a service for the city. Many are now wishing to take holiday leave that they were unable to take last year, as the service tried to keep going. This is now causing an issue as we go into the holiday period.

Street cleansing has been impacted as a number of the staff were classed as being clinically vulnerable and were instructed to stay at home. The service lost about 30-40% of the workforce during the pandemic as they were required to stay at home. Many are now back at work and the service is now starting to catch up.

Members discussions focussed on the following issues:

·  Number of complaints being  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

The next meeting of the Outer West Community Committee will be held on 5^th July 2021, at 1pm in Civic Hall, Leeds.

RECOMMENDED - To note that the next meeting of the Outer West Community Committee is scheduled for Monday 5^th July 2021 at 1pm, in Civic Hall, Leeds.