Graeme Kane, Assistant Director for Public Space, Contracting and Commissioning, introduced the item.  This is the final in the monthly reports provided to the Panel at the request of members.  Highlighted that the rate of missed bins remains higher than desired.  Also that the recent snow event had presented a challenge to the service.  Gritting and bin collections had been prioritised with resources reallocated from street cleaning, (it is too dangerous to provide this element of the service during the snow in addition to not wanting to remove grit that has been spread).  Veolia performed well during the adverse weather conditions which provided reassurance; it worked closely with and under the direction of the Council’s Highways Maintenance Team and proved to be reliable, professional and on time.

The trend in the recycling rate remains largely unchanged.  It is unlikely that this will improve until the new service provision comes into place in autumn 2018.  However, greater use of the garden waste service with the start of growing season may see some increase.  Noted that the volume of fly tips is not a reflection of Veolia’s performance; it is judged on the speed at which fly tips are removed.  The enforcement team continues to investigate and fine where it can identify those that are fly tipping.

To address litter issues caused by the continuation of the bag service (until the new service provision in the autumn) in addition to crews dropping litter, Veolia is providing six additional litter pickers who will attend to streets following collections.  This approach started this month and the impact will start to be seen.  This will then allow street cleaners to do detailed cleaning work.

Green sweeper rubbish sacks should be removed from streets within 24 hours.  Expressed gratitude to residents who highlight where these remain on street for longer and noted that these reports are then addressed by the Neighbourhood Client Team.  Analysis of fly tipping reports show that only seven out of the 708 reports made in February mention green sweeper rubbish sacks.  Therefore, this is perceived to be a bigger issue than is the case.

Council officers continue to work closely with Veolia.  Neighbourhood Client Officers are undertaking joint inspections with their Veolia counterparts and identifying solutions to issues.  Meetings are also taking place with the Veolia Contract Manager and the UK General Manager.  Noted that the service is starting to see improvements.

In response to member questions, the Assistant Director clarified:

·         December 2017 is the anomaly in the missed bin figures where this dropped for the last two weeks on the month with the focus on Christmas and the New Year;

·         Consent forms for the removal of graffiti from private property are issued by both Merton’s Neighbourhood Client Team and Veolia with the organisations working closely to ensure these are completed.  A charge is made for the removal of graffiti from private property.  The Assistant Director noted the need to provide further briefings to the Council’s customer contact centre to ensure it is aware of these arrangements;

·         Fly tipping is happening in all sizes right across the borough.  Likely that residents currently have no way to contain items and that this will be improved by the rollout of wheeled bins this autumn.  The speed at which tips are being addressed is being challenged by the volume of reports. The percentage of fly tips removed within 24 hours in January 2018 was 51%*, (this figure has been supplied for the minutes as it was missing from the report);

·         It isn’t thought likely that fly tipping will lessen as a result of the integration of requests for baulky item removal to the online service.  The average wait for a baulky item collection depends on where a resident lives as collection slots are arranged according to the resident’s standard waste/recycling collection day and popularity of the service differs from one area to the next. Currently the average wait is less than a week for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday collections and three weeks for a Thursday collection, where collections are very popular;

·         Noted the issue of street sweeping in Hillside for further exploration; and

·         Online reports to the service are being monitored with work ongoing with Veolia to ensure those that have been open for too longer are addressed and closed.  Noted the issue of the online system not accepting more than one report per location.

* Note: Veolia is currently providing two additional fly-tip collection vehicles which do not have on-board computers to record the time at which a fly-tip is collected. Therefore, the statistics are not able to reflect whether these fly-tip reports have been collected within 24 hours and will be under reporting the number of collections made within 24 hours.

Several members praised the work of the Neighbourhood Client Team which the Assistant Director committed to pass on.  Praise for the work of the street sweeper for Garth Road and Lynmouth Avenue was also noted.

Cllr Jones, in her capacity as Chair of the Panel, highlighted that it would need to determine how it will continue to monitor Veolia’s performance in the new municipal year.  Also, she thanked the Assistant Director for his work given this was his last meeting before leaving Merton for a new role.