Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

a)  To agree the Minutes of the previous meeting held on 5^th of September 2024

b)  Matters arising

The minutes of the meeting held on 5^th September 2024 were agreed and signed as a true record.

Further to Minute 8, headed Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2024-29 Consultation, the Board were provided with an update regarding audit information.

Additionally, further to Minute 9, headed Work Programme, the Board were made aware of an interim briefing note on resident parking schemes which is due to be heard in March.

Briefing Note of the Strategic Lead for Environmental Services

The Board received a presentation and briefing note of the Strategic Lead for Environmental Services which updated them on the new chargeable Garden waste collection service.

As part of the budget setting process for 2024/25 the introduction of a subscription for garden waste was one of 30 changes that were implemented as part of the revenue and capital budget for 2024/25. If residents would like to have a garden waste service, they need to purchase a yearly permit for £40 per bin. The new paid-for garden waste (brown-lidded bin) collections started the week beginning 3 June and the permits for this year are from 1 June 2024 to 31 May 2025.

The charges had been in place for almost six months, and officers covered the following key areas in the presentation attached at Appendix 1: subscriptions, collections, financials, challenges, impacts on other services including fly tipping, and bulky waste collections.

In considering the presentation and briefing note, the Board questioned officers, received responses and discussed matters as summarised below:

·  The previous promise of weekly food waste collections and ensuring that residents aren’t left with food waste for a 2-week period.

·  Outreach and engagement to tackle low garden waste subscription in wards such as Foleshill and St Michaels but simultaneous high fly tipping – fluctuations in the data due to properties without gardens and changing attitudes to fly tipping.

·  The number of subscriptions (approximately 48,000) in comparison to the total number of properties (approximately 148,000), the steps to contact those properties who haven’t yet subscribed, and the removal and re-purposing of non-subscribed bins.

·  Training in the winter period where previously brown bin collections were stopped.

·  Past food waste collection services and work done with communications to educate residents on the costs involved with disposing of food waste in brown bins.

·  The introduction of a future food waste policy, benchmarking with neighbouring authorities to understand cost, and bringing information on food waste budget saving to a future meeting of the Board.

·  The correlation between deprivation and low garden waste subscriptions and potential communication strategies – such as sharing information in other targeted languages – to engage residents in those deprived areas.

·  Disparities between fly-tipping data and fly-capture data.

·  The number of public reports of fly-tipping and the success rate of fly-tipping being removed within the 5 working day target.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Duggins, thanked the officers for the presentation and welcomed the future food waste proposals which had previously received cross-party support. In response to the challenges raised, he encouraged more education for residents to ensure a seamlessness in service and area specific communication strategies to help implement the new system of waste collection next year. The Board reiterated these messages and proposed that food waste collection and a further monitoring of the garden waste subscription service be added to the Work Programme for a future meeting.

RESOLVED that the Communities and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Board (4) considers the information provided in Appendix 1.

Briefing Note of the Strategic Lead for Environmental Services

The Board received a presentation and briefing note of the Strategic Lead for Environmental Services on the performance of addressing fly-tipping during 2023/24.

At their meeting on the 25th September 2024, Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee considered a Cabinet Report on the One Coventry Performance Plan 2023-2024. Included in the report was progress made on the metric “cleaner streets, supported by action against fly-tipping”.

The number of fly-tipping incidents reduced from 6,840 in 2022/23 to 5,883 in 2023/24. The Environmental Enforcement Team exceeded the target of the 5% reduction and will continue to drive down fly tipping through a combination of education and enforcement, focussing attention on the streets that are causing the most issues. Working closely with colleagues in streetpride and domestic waste, it is hoped that there will be further reductions over the coming years, whilst maintaining or increasing the current level of enforcement.

In considering the presentation and briefing note, the Board questioned officers, received responses and discussed matters as summarised below:

·  The efforts taken to drive performance and the correlation between high fly-tipping and wards with the highest number of private landlords – increasing data collection beyond licensed HMOs and cross-departmental work with the licensing team to tackle enforcement in areas with high numbers of private landlords.

·  Spending on fly-tipping in the last 5 years and the efforts being made to work with housing organisations such as Citizen to make their fly-tipping agenda more effective.

·  Work to crackdown on unregistered HMOs and their associated problems in terms of fly-tipping.

·  The ‘Wall of Shame’ YouTube series and expanding CCTV cameras to all wards across the city to improve the effectiveness of the deterrent.

·  Educating residents to the benefits of the bulk waste service.

·  The variations in fly-tipping data (collections) and fly-capture data (national reporting system).

·  Fly-tipping in the context of the new waste collection model coming next year – identifying problems and assessing solutions in both residential and commercial areas.

·  Reactivity versus proactivity and how using new data systems such as PowerBI is making the service more proactive.

·  The possibility of a ‘see it, say it, sorted’ reporting policy to allow residents to quickly and easily report fly-tipping.

Councillor Duggins reiterated his thanks to officers and recognised that fly-tipping is a challenge that every resident in Coventry must be committed to tackle. He urged residents to share any evidence of fly-tipping in their neighbourhoods with their councillors or report it directly to the council.

RESOLVED that the Communities and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Board (4):

1)  Considers the current performance to address fly-tipping in the city.

2)  Requests the Cabinet Member for City Services look at ways to increase income to address fly-tipping including from businesses and private landlords.

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

The Communities and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Board (4) received a report of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator that detailed issues on the Board’s Work Programme for meetings of the Board for 2024/25.

RESOLVED that the Communities and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Board (4) notes the issues on the Board’s Work Programme for 2024/25 and requests that:

1)  ‘Housing Retrofitting and EPC Ratings’ be added to the Work Programme.

2)  ‘Litter Picking’ be brought forward to a future meeting.

There were no other items of public business.