Issue - meetings

The Portfolio Holder for Community Services drew Members’ attention to the section within the briefing paper which showed that Bromsgrove District Council (BDC) now had one of the largest paid for garden waste services in the Country and that other councils who were considering moving to a paid garden waste service were looking to BDC for guidance in setting up such a service.

The Board were advised that currently 8,381 payments have been received for next year’s service, around £260,000.  This was double what had been collected by this time last year.   The deadline was 14th January 2011 for payments, however the Head of Environmental Services confirmed that the Council would continue to take payments after that date.  The Board discussed the following in more detail:

• The actual costs of providing the service, compared to the income it generated.  (The Head of Environmental Services confirmed he would be able to provide an exact calculation of this at the end of the financial year.)
• How the scheme was staffed, considering that it only ran for 9 months of the year.
• The possibility of providing an annual service and the costs attached to this.
• The vehicles and maintenance of them.  Currently with the “sidearm loading” vehicles the Council used, 6 were run in order to keep 3 on the road due to their unreliability. (The Head of Environmental Services confirmed that a capital bid had been put forward for 4 new vehicles.)
• The increased availability of brown bins in other areas due to the new vehicles, which would be able to provide access to areas not accessible with the old vehicles.
• The availability of a second brown bin to those residents which had requested them.

The Chairman thanked the Portfolio Holder for Community Services and the Head of Environmental Services for the comprehensive updates they had provided for the Board.