Agenda item

Councillor Michael White, Leader of the Council introduced the report in the absence of the Cabinet Member for Environment.

The report provided an overview of the Department for Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG) Weekly Collection Support Scheme (Scheme) and sought approval to submit two bids for the grant funding available.

It was explained that the Department for Communities and Local Government had made available up to £250 million to English local authorities over three years; £50 million in 2012/13, £100 million in 2013/14 and £100 million in 2014/15.

The aim of this scheme was to support local authorities in three ways:

              a) Introduce, retain or reinstate a weekly collection of residual household waste; or

              b) Propose improvements to an existing waste service which was already centred around a weekly residual collection, for example by improving environmental performance, increasing the affordability or sustainability of that service; or

              c) Add a weekly food waste (or organic waste) service to an existing fortnightly collection of residual household waste

Each proposal had to deliver a weekly collection of residual household waste; value for money (in terms of cost effectiveness); and deliver an environmental benefit over current performance. Schemes would only be awarded funding to local authorities that committed to weekly collections for (a minimum of) five years from 2012/13 (or the first year of the bid).

The Council had developed two bids which met the Schemes criteria and satisfied the funding stipulations. These were ‘Green Rewards – Havering’ and ‘Havering Waste Prevention Campaign’.

‘Green Rewards – Havering’ would engage and motivate households to reduce their weekly residual waste and increase their weekly recycling through a proactive programme of communications and incentives and rewards. The aim of the project was to move the Councils household waste recycling and composting performance towards 40%.

It was noted that all households in the Borough would receive a welcome pack with information on how they could reduce waste and increase recycling. This would invite residents to activate their account. Once the account was activated household would receive a welcome letter and an activation card which could be used to obtain discounts from local retailers who had signed up to the scheme thereby helping to boost the local economy.

A total grant of £1,008,557 over three years was sought.

The second funding bid, ‘Havering Waste Prevention Campaign’, sought support to help reduce household waste over the next five years in order to reduce costs, reduce waste and contribute towards meeting the Mayor’s recycling and waste targets.

Effective communications were key to reducing waste tonnages and this funding would be used to develop a full campaign for waste prevention. As well as reducing the amount the Council pays for waste disposal preventing waste would also save residents money. The campaign would attempt to fully utilise local organisations: schools, community groups, charities, etc as delivery partners and would build on the already successful Love Food Hate Waste campaign, promoting home composting, and other ways of preventing waste.

A total Grant of £350,120 over three years was sought.

It was reported that due to the tight time scales involved between feedback from DCLG and the deadline for submissions of the final bid the matter had not been included on the Forward Plan. Agreement had been sought and obtained from the Chairman of Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee that the report be exempted from inclusion on the Forward Plan and that the item wiould be exempt from call-in to the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

              Reasons for the decision:

              Final bids for the grant funding had to be submitted to DCLG by 17 August 2012. Because the funding sought was over one million pounds a Cabinet decision was required.

              Other options considered:

There was no obligation to bid for funding under the DCLG scheme.

Cabinet Agreed:

1.   That two grant funding bids be submitted to DCLG by the deadline of 17 August 2012.

2.      Bid 1 - Green Rewards - Havering. A total grant of £1,008,557 over three years.

3.      Bid 2 - Havering Waste Prevention Campaign.  Total Grant of £350,120 over three years.

4.   To continue to provide a weekly waste collection for a minimum of five years from 2012/13 in accordance with the funding conditions of the DCLG Support Scheme.