Agenda and minutes

There were no Declarations of Interest made by Members at this point in the meeting.

To Follow

The minutes of the previous meeting of the Environment Scrutiny Panel held on 11 December 2023 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

** SUSPENSION OF COUNCIL PROCEDURE RULE 4.13.2 – ORDER OF BUSINESS

ORDERED: In accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 4.57, the Scrutiny Panel agreed to vary the order of business to consider agenda item 5 as the next item of business.

The Executive Director of Environment and Community Services and the Executive Member for Environment will be in attendance to present the Environment and Community Services budget to the Panel.

Presentation To Follow

G Field, Director of Environment and Community Services, accompanied by Councillor P Gavigan, Executive Member for Environment, was in attendance at the meeting to provide the Panel with budget proposals relating to the Environment and Community Services Directorate.

Each of the Council’s Scrutiny Panels had been asked to consider the budget proposals in relation to its relevant service area/remit as part of consultation with Members.  Comments and feedback provided by the Panel would be fed into a briefing note to be submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Board on 18 January 2024.

Members were reminded of the legal requirement for the Council to set a balanced budget for 2024/25 by 11 March 2024 and the best value requirement to secure financial recovery and stability through setting a balanced three-year Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP) over the period to 2026/27. 

Due to the Council’s critical financial position it was necessary to identify, approve, and implement a range of budgetary control measures at significant scale to return to a financially sustainable position where the annual expenditure of the Council remained within its annual income over the medium term.  

On 17 January 2024, the Executive would be asked to consider approving an application to Government for Exceptional Financial Support in order to balance the budget.  The money borrowed would be repaid at a slightly higher rate but it would allow the Council to navigate through the period required and to implement transformation of services to regain a financially sustainable position.

If approved by the Executive, once an application had been made for exceptional financial support, Full Council would ultimately decide on setting a balanced budget.  There still remained a risk of the Section 151 Officer being required to issue a S114 Notice under s114(3) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, in the event that the Council was unable to set a legally balanced budget for 2024/25. The adverse consequences of issuing a section 114 notice were significant.

The Director made a presentation to the Panel providing details on:-

·        The remaining budget gap.

·        Post settlement update/exceptional financial support

·        Budget savings proposals for Environment and Communities.

Remaining Budget Gap

The remaining budget gap for 2024/25 after all current budget proposals and Council Tax assumptions was £6.279.

Further gaps of £1.596m for 2025/26 and £0.305m for 2026/27, equivalent to a cumulative budget gap of £8.180m had also been identified. The draft savings and income growth proposals that were subject to consultation totalled £14.038m in 2024/25.  For 2025/26 the figure was £5.083m and £1.967m in 2026/27, presenting a cumulative savings plan of £21.088m by the end of 2026/27.

Post Settlement Update

The Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement (LGFS) was announced on 18 December 2023 and was broadly inline with the Council’s MTFP and initial assessment and, therefore, did not close the £6.3 million funding gap.

CIPFA guidance to S151 Officers who were considering issuing a s114 Notice was to engage with DLUHC and make an application for Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) in order to agree a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23/33

The Waste Collections Manager and Operational Community Safety Manager will be in attendance to provide the Panel with an overview in relation to:-

·        Bulky waste collections

·        Fly tipping collections

C Coverdale, Environment Services Manager, P Salt, Waste Collections Manager and D Metcalfe, Operational Community Safety Manager, were in attendance to provide Members with further information in relation to bulky wate collections and fly tipping collections.

Bulky Waste Collections

The Panel was informed that the Council operated a bulky waste collection service (sometimes referred to as ‘junk jobs’) for Middlesbrough residents for waste that did not fit inside a residential wheeled bin.

Examples of bulky waste items included: furniture, such as beds and sofas; electrical items and white goods, such as TVs, washing machines, microwaves, fridges, freezers, etc.

There was currently a two-tier service in operation – one providing collections free of charge, and a paid for service ensuring a quicker collection time, known as the premium bulky waste collection service.

The wait time for the free of charge collection service was up to 12 weeks at peak times, however, the service had been suspended for the last two months due to resource issues with vehicles.

The wait times for the premium service varied but, on average was up to three weeks, however, there was currently only a one week wait time due to low take up.

The charges for the premium services were as follows:-

·        £22.50 for up to 5 items

·        £45.00 for up to 10 items

·        £67.50 for up to 15 items

·        All prices were dependent on weight

For both bulky waste and premium bulky waste collections, residents were provided with a collection date and advice on how to present the items for collection from the front of their property and asked to leave out by 7.00am on the day of collection.  For example, glass must be taped, bubble-wrapped, or smashed up and placed in a securely taped box.

Residents were advised that collection teams were not allowed to enter homes to remove, or help to remove, items and had to make separate collections for electrical and non-electrical items due to environmental legislation and the use of different vehicles to collect such items.

Currently, electrical items were collected on Wednesdays and Fridays and non-electrical items were collected on Wednesdays from South and West Middlesbrough and on Fridays from North and East Middlesbrough.

Mattresses had to be collected separately by another vehicle and if a resident wished to have a mattress collected, no other bulky waste items could be collected at the same time.  Mattress collections were made fortnightly on Mondays (except Bank Holidays) and a maximum of three per property could be collected.  It was highlighted that a total of 50 mattress collections were made on the last mattress collection round and it was a very popular service.

During the course of discussion, the following issues were raised:-

·        In response to a query it was clarified that items were differentiated between at the point of booking when full details of the items to be collected would be taken from the resident.  This would determine the collection date(s) for the items depending on what they were.  The majority of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23/34

The Chair will provide a verbal update to the Panel on business conducted at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meetings held on 20 December 2023 and 10 January 2024.

The Chair provided a verbal update in relation to the business conducted at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 20 December 2023, namely:

·        Executive Forward Work Programme

·        Council Plan 2024 onwards

·        2024/25 Budget and MTFP Refresh

·        Final Report of the Health Scrutiny Panel – Dental Health and the Impact of Covid 19.

·        Scrutiny Panels’ Chairs’ Updates.

·        Next meeting of OSB – Thursday, 18^th January 2024, 4.30pm.

NOTED

Feedback from Site Visit to Recycling Facility

The Vice Chair reported back on the site visit undertaken to the Cumbria Waste Recycling Facility on 19 December 2023.  The visit had provided Members with the opportunity to see first-hand what happened to recycling once it had been collected from the kerbside and transported to the recycling plant.  This included hand sorting by site operatives of all the waste into relevant streams such as glass, paper, cardboard, plastic etc.  Members had also witnessed the problems caused by contamination of the recycling waste stream, reinforcing the need for this to be reduced as much as possible.  Members had found the visit very interesting and wished to thank the officers and site operatives for the hospitality shown to them.

During the ensuing discussion, it was highlighted that a short promotional video showing a snapshot of what happens to recycling once it reaches the plant might help to promote the message of the importance of recycling.

NOTED

Crustacean Deaths Collaborative Working Group - Update

The Vice Chair advised that a draft report following the one-year investigation by the above group had been shared with the members of the group for comment prior to its next meeting in February.  This would be shared with the Scrutiny Panel in due course.

The Vice Chair provided details of the large scale demise of crustaceans that had first occurred in October 2021.  It was a major problem in the North East resulting in an 80% decline in catches for local fishermen.

NOTED

The next meeting of the Environment Scrutiny Panel was scheduled to take place on Monday, 5 February 2024 at 10.00am.