·         Update report

·         Veolia ride-along -  verbal report back

Update report

Graeme Kane, Assistant Director, Public Space, Contracting and Commissioning, provided an introduction to his update report.  Highlighted that two significant services have now been contracted out with accompanying big expectations on staff with changes to culture, equipment and working practices.  The Council is now benefitting from Veolia’s commercial knowledge, technical solutions and equipment in addition to the financial savings which will be realised through the contract.  The commitment from both sides to make the contract work is impressive.  Whilst only in its early stages, things are going well.  Inevitably there are some issues with the current focus on missed bin collections and the speed of fly tip removal.  The Idverde greenspaces contract is also operating well especially given this is a challenging time of year.  Cutting of grass and verges has been excellent and the contractor is staying on top of litter picking.  Thanks were given to the team (especially Doug Napier) for starting the contract early (February 2017) to allow it to become embedded before the growing season.

Ride along

Cllr Sargeant gave a verbal report on his ride along with a Veolia rubbish collection team.  He explained that he had requested this in order to identify issues to be addressed in preparing for the new service being rolled-out in Merton in 2018.  He noted his dislike of wheeled bins and his concern about the need for the new service to be flexible and accommodate those who may struggle to present their rubbish for collection under the requirements of the new service.  The Cllr was nevertheless pleased to report how well run he found the service.

The ride along took place in Kingston (and not Sutton as originally requested) on 6 June 2017.  The Cllr initially attended health & safety and management briefings.  He met and questioned two teams on their rounds and then rode along with a third.  The team was very friendly, energetic and with high morale, perhaps selected as one of the best teams in the service.

The Echo system is key to a successful, flexible service.  This comprises an on-board computer that is connected wirelessly to the depot, allowing performance to be reported and monitored in real time.  Veolia and Kingston meet every three months to review this in detail.  The information it provides is sufficiently comprehensive that it is possible to drill down to look at the service provided to individual households and any specific issues such as where the household is not correctly sorting waste and recycling.  The technical solution allows photographic evidence to be captured of bins not presented for collection.  The driver has to sign-off each street in real time before the crew moves on.

The Cllr noted that the service caters for the 5% of residents requiring assistance.  Again, the driver has to acknowledge that this has been provided in each individual case before a street can be signed-off. 

Kingston offers 180, 240 and 360 litre wheeled bins although it is considered an error that the largest of the three was offered.  This is because it sends the wrong message, implying that it is acceptable to generate larger amounts of waste.  Wheeled bins have to be presented at the edge of the property for collection but the Cllr saw that some bins are left in the street when returned which is an issue.  It was noted that the configuration of lorries means it would be possible to throw in some black sacks. 

Kingston has seen a 1-2% increase in recycling since the start of the contract on top of a rate (c.45%) that was already a little higher than Merton.

The Cllr highlighted some lessons learned as a result of his experience:

·         Planning prior to the start of the service is key; the comparison was made with what is happening in other boroughs that didn’t allow for this planning time;

·         Even in Kingston, where the rollout of the new service seems to have gone well, bins were missed at the start.  Planning needs to be put in place to address this; and

·         The new system depends critically on the calibre and motivation of every collection team.

Cllr Sargeant expressed his thanks to the Assistant Director and his team for organising the ride along which he enjoyed.

In response to member questions, Graeme Kane clarified:

·         Veolia’s Echo IT system is already operational within Merton; he can log in from his desk to review real time data and explore issues down to the level of individual households.  It is also linked to Merton’s website and gives residents a personalised service allowing them to review data relevant to their collection.  However, this isn’t fully integrated as yet.  This specifically relates to fly tipping.  The system can record where these exist but can’t capture in real time when these are addressed and currently this data isn’t pulled into the CRM to capture response times;

·         Communications to residents about recycling contamination at individual propertiesaren’t yet fully operational but will happen as part of the new service.  This will include notifications to individual households where recycling isn’t being correctly sorted;

·         Apologised for the difficulties experienced with renewal payments for garden waste collections.  Currently, these number around 8,000 and are paid for using a mix of direct debits, credit and debit card payments.  There is frustration that it isn’t possible to offer online payment with residents having to call the contact centre.  This has been mitigated in part by opening the contact centre for additional hours and contact centre staff calling back residents where required.  The option of including payment for garden waste as part of the council tax collection will be explored;

·         Focus is on missed garden waste collections especially where this is repeated.  The data now available allows this to be addressed;

·         For households generating very small amounts of waste, it is possible for this to be included in a neighbour’s collection.  However, whilst there is nothing to prevent this happening, this sort of arrangement would need to be put in place by the individual households involved.  Obviously, for those households that will struggle to present their wheeled bin, assistance is available;

·         The policy for presenting bins at the edge of the property (anything that is within an arm’s length of the edge is permitted) remains the same but the practice has improved.  Acknowledged this will need to be reinforced through on-going communications to residents; and

·         Accepted Cllr Chung’s offer to look at and consider a range of solutions for shopping parade bins that appear insufficient for the waste needs of fast food outlets.  Some options were highlighted: additional bins, fines for those individuals/businesses involved, getting crews to focus on these etc