Agenda, decisions and minutes

Councillor Clucas

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 6 November will be taken at the Cabinet meeting on 4 December 2018.

The minutes of the meeting held on 6 November will be approved at Cabinet on 4 December 2018.

There were none.

Report of the Cabinet Member Clean and Green Environment

The Cabinet Member Clean and Green Environment introduced the report and explained that there were 3 recommendations for Cabinet to consider as follows :

1)    Payment to Gloucestershire Council of £50,000 per annum for an interim period of three years starting upon the opening of the Javelin Park facility

The Cabinet Member explained that the project plan for the Javelin Park waste facility had been worked up over a number of years and CBC had maintained some interest in the project, particularly when it was undertaking its service redesign which launched in 2017. CBC had been given the assurance by the Joint Waste Team and the County Council that there would be no changes to existing arrangements, i.e. that residual waste vehicles would continue to deliver waste to the existing landfill site facility at Stoke Orchard. CBC had therefore purchased vehicles in the knowledge that there would be no direct delivery to Javelin Park.

The Cabinet Member then went on to inform that in April 2018 he was made aware that the county council may change arrangements to direct delivery which came as a surprise given previous information. It appeared that Tewkesbury Borough Council was in a similar situation. He explained that recommendation 1 therefore avoided entirely the prospect of direct delivery of residual waste to Javelin Park for which a payment of £50k per year had been negotiated. This solution had been made for both strategic and common sense reasons, namely :

·         It would be both unfair and unprofessional for CBC to have launched a new service 12 months ago to residents and then change that service again in spring 2019

·         It would be unreasonable and unsustainable to drive vehicles to Junction 12 of the M5 which would affect staff, vehicles and residents

·         It was important to respond to the opening of Javelin Park in spring 2019 in a long term strategic way and therefore a 3 year timeframe to work up a future scheme which would include linking in the depot and potential joint waste transfer with Tewkesbury Borough Council and Gloucester City was proposed.

The Cabinet Member expressed his frustration at the cost to be incurred by CBC but highlighted the greater cost should the County Council force the borough to direct deliver to Javelin Park.

2)    Withdrawal from the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee

The Cabinet Member explained that the inception of the Joint Waste Committee in 2014 represented an exciting opportunity for joint working between the 6 districts and the county undertook to produce a sensible strategic plan for a service which would deliver savings county wide. The experience however was far from this and he gave the example of the fact that 3 of the districts had redesigned their services during this time without the knowledge that their neighbouring authorities were doing this too which constituted a missed opportunity. The Joint Waste Team had therefore not made any progress which all authorities could have benefitted from.

The Cabinet Member highlighted that the decision would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Cabinet Member Development and Safety informed Cabinet that he had approved a contract waiver for the hire of air monitoring equipment which exceeded £10k for the purposes of the Boots Corner trial.