Agenda item

Waste Services Contract

The Leader began his announcements by making reference to the poor bin collection service received by residents either side of Christmas and the New Year, stating that he was aware of the significant workload created for Members.

He advised Members that, early in the New Year, the Council escalated the situation with the contractor at the most senior level.  The Chief Executive personally wrote to Urbaser’s Managing Director, which had been followed by a senior level meeting with the contractor involving the Leader, Councillors Coffin and Betts and senior officers.

He indicated that, since this intervention, service delivery had improved significantly, with Urbaser regularly reporting that all rounds were being completed on their scheduled day and resources had been deployed to progress the clearance of the back log of missed collections. The Council had also seen a notable reduction in calls, email traffic and complaints.

The early days of the new arrangements had seen an increase in recycling rates.  The Leader stated that, for a number of years, annual recycling rates had remained relatively static at around 42%.  Based on data received to date recycling rates for October and November 2019 were at 55% and 54% respectively which compared with 44% and 40% respectively in the same months in 2018.

He advised that, overall, during this period and compared with October and November 2018, the amount of material collected for recycling and composting had increased by 27%, the amount of waste sent for disposal had dropped by 24%, and overall waste had dropped by 2.5%.

The new arrangements had introduced a subscription garden waste service.  He reported that 47% of all households in the Borough had signed up and that this represented by far the highest take-up in Kent and was significantly greater than the original target of 30%.

Local Plan

The Leader announced the provisional dates for the first three days of the Local Plan Hearing and advised that, subject to confirmation from the Inspectorate, the Hearing was due to open during the week commencing 18 May for three consecutive days (Tuesday 19 to Thursday 21 May) and would be held at the Orchard Suite, East Malling Research Centre.

Larkfield Leisure Centre

The Leader provided an update on the capital plan scheme at Larkfield Leisure Centre. He reported that the work in the plant room was progressing well, with the old boilers being removed, the new boilers moved into place and final connections being made.  A temporary boiler had been providing heating and hot water during the course of the work. Works to the air handling unit would commence in the coming weeks. 

He advised that, as the old roof was being removed, the contractors discovered some corrosion of the steelwork which had to be treated with a specialist product before any further work could take place. This had resulted in a delay to the programme of approximately 3-4 weeks, meaning the overall scheme was currently due to be completed in mid-June. The recent inclement weather had also not helped progress although the contractors on site had continued to work in the conditions, where safe to do so.

It was reported that three out of the thirteen new polycarbonate roof bays had been installed and painting of the internal steel roof framework would begin during the week commencing 24 February. 

Members were advised that Officers would continue to work closely with the contractor and the Leisure Trust to try and minimise the impact on customers.

Tonbridge Medical Group

After many years of seeking opportunities to bring a new medical centre in Tonbridge, the Leader expressed his delight that the Tonbridge Medical Group would soon achieve its aspiration for a high quality, state of the art medical facility in the town centre. 

He was especially pleased that the Borough Council had been able to play its part by releasing the land that had helped realise this ambition. He congratulated the Tonbridge Medical Group and all involved for their hard work in getting to a point when the new centre would be opening its doors to patients for the first time in just a few months.

Recent Bad weather

The Leader referred to the consecutive weekends of storms and significant amounts of rain and wind which had resulted in a number of fallen trees and localised flooding, given that water levels were already at a high level.  He reported that Officers were not aware of any flooding to a significant number of properties but, nevertheless, the Borough Council had had staff on duty, working with local flood warden teams and he thanked all the services that had worked over both weekends.