Agenda item

That this Council:-

(a)       notes the slump in green waste recycling in 2012 in the peak months of April to September and believes this is a result of the current Administration’s decision to end the free collection of green waste and their mismanagement of local recycling centres;

(b)       further notes the report of The Sheffield Star on 20^th November 2012, which stated:

            “Coun Jack Scott, Sheffield Council cabinet member responsible for environment, said the fall had coincided with the authority taking a tougher line on the problem. But he has now revealed the decrease is partly due to a change in how Sheffield Homes records figures for dumping on estates.”

(c)        reminds Members that these latest embarrassments follow a string of failures under the tenure of the current Cabinet Member for Environment, Recycling and Streetscene, including:

(i)         a failure to effectively communicate changes, despite spending £400,000, which resulted in hundreds of families missing their first black bin collection under the new fortnightly system;

(ii)        utter confusion over an amnesty on closed lids and additional sacks, which saw the Council and Veolia offering contradictory advice;

(iii)       over a thousand complaints a day during the first week of fortnightly bin collections;

(iv)       complete mismanagement of local recycling centres and the failure to avoid strikes; and

(v)        a swift u-turn on a proposal to offer the charged-for green bin service across the City, but only after 14,000 greens bins had already been chipped and pelletted;

(d)       believes this represents one of the most inept starts to a Cabinet career in Sheffield City Council history;

(e)       feels that this farcical catalogue of errors was reflected in a recent poll on The Star’s website, which saw 54% of local people state that waste collections were not working in Sheffield;

(f)         notes the announcement of funds awarded under the Coalition Government’s £250 million Weekly Collection Support Scheme, which saw a number of councils awarded over £10 million;

(g)       laments the decision of the current Administration in refusing to swallow their pride and submit a more ambitious bid to the fund, which could have saved local services for thousands of Sheffielders;

(h)        believes that the current Administration failed to stand up for Sheffield by not submitting a more ambitious bid, and regrets that it will now be extremely difficult to revert back to weekly black bin collections; and

(i)         calls upon the Administration to undertake a genuine review of the City’s waste services as opposed to the Administration’s last consultation on waste services, which was criticised in the local press for its “weighted” questions.

WASTE COLLECTION AND RECYCLING

It was moved by Councillor David Baker, seconded by Councillor Colin Ross, that this Council:-

(a)       notes the slump in green waste recycling in 2012 in the peak months of April to September and believes this is a result of the current Administration’s decision to end the free collection of green waste and their mismanagement of local recycling centres;

(b)       further notes the report of The Sheffield Star on 20^th November 2012, which stated:

            “Coun Jack Scott, Sheffield Council cabinet member responsible for environment, said the fall had coincided with the authority taking a tougher line on the problem. But he has now revealed the decrease is partly due to a change in how Sheffield Homes records figures for dumping on estates.”

(c)        reminds Members that these latest embarrassments follow a string of failures under the tenure of the current Cabinet Member for Environment, Recycling and Streetscene, including:

(i)         a failure to effectively communicate changes, despite spending £400,000, which resulted in hundreds of families missing their first black bin collection under the new fortnightly system;

(ii)        utter confusion over an amnesty on closed lids and additional sacks, which saw the Council and Veolia offering contradictory advice;

(iii)       over a thousand complaints a day during the first week of fortnightly bin collections;

(iv)       complete mismanagement of local recycling centres and the failure to avoid strikes; and

(v)        a swift u-turn on a proposal to offer the charged-for green bin service across the City, but only after 14,000 greens bins had already been chipped and pelletted;

(d)       believes this represents one of the most inept starts to a Cabinet career in Sheffield City Council history;

(e)       feels that this farcical catalogue of errors was reflected in a recent poll on The Star’s website, which saw 54% of local people state that waste collections were not working in Sheffield;

(f)         notes the announcement of funds awarded under the Coalition Government’s £250 million Weekly Collection Support Scheme, which saw a number of councils awarded over £10 million;

(g)       laments the decision of the current Administration in refusing to swallow their pride and submit a more ambitious bid to the fund, which could have saved local services for thousands of Sheffielders;

(h)        believes that the current Administration failed to stand up for Sheffield by not submitting a more ambitious bid, and regrets that it will now be extremely difficult to revert back to weekly black bin collections; and

(i)         calls upon the Administration to undertake a genuine review of the City’s waste services as opposed to the Administration’s last consultation on waste services, which was criticised in the local press for its “weighted” questions.

Whereupon, it was moved by Councillor Jack Scott, seconded by Councillor Ibrar Hussain, as an amendment, that the Motion now submitted be amended by the deletion of all the words after the words “That this Council“ and the substitution of the following words therefor:-

(a)       fully opposes the Government’s record level of cuts to Sheffield City Council, noting that the Government’s cuts are targeted at Councils in the north of England whilst some of the wealthiest councils in the country receive almost no cuts at all, and which have necessitated changes to the waste management service to bring in savings of at least £4 million;

(b)       further notes the opinion of The Sheffield Star on 23rd November 2012, which stated:

“the Lib Dems merely buried their heads in the sand and pretended the problem would go away. Labour may have taken an unpopular decision, but decisions were needed.”

(c)        is committed to supporting Sheffielders to recycle and therefore deplores the record of the previous Administration who increased recycling by less than 2.5% between 2008 and 2011 and believes this is just another example of their three wasted years;

(d)       notes that these poor recycling levels under the previous Administration are despite spending an additional £2 million on recycling services which was made possible due to the investment in local public services by the previous Government;

(e)       believes that the incompetence of the previous Administration contributed to this failure to significantly improve recycling rates, which is demonstrated by ill-thought through initiatives which clearly made it harder for Sheffielders to recycle, such as the blue boxes for paper and card, a decision made when the present Leader of the main opposition group was the Cabinet Member for waste management between 2008-2010;

(f)         welcomes the present Administration’s campaign to improve recycling in Sheffield whilst moving to Alternate Week Collections, with measures such as the roll out of flexible choice for blue bins and boxes, increasing staffing in the Veolia call centre and the work of the liaison team to support Sheffield people to use the full range of facilities available;

(g)       welcomes recent reductions in the amount of waste sent to landfill and acknowledges that this now at a record low under the present Administration;

(h)        notes the reduction in green waste recycling in 2012 in the months of April to September is a result of unprecedented wet weather, with the wettest summer on record;

(i)         notes that the Government’s fund to protect weekly collections was a public relations stunt from the start, and that Sheffield City Council wrote to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government twice and also to the Deputy Prime Minister asking for confirmation that this would give the Council the money to keep weekly collections in Sheffield, and that if the Coalition had given the Council this guarantee the Council would not have moved to alternate week collections, but the guarantee never came;

(j)         further notes that, out of 216 local authorities, only 90 are receiving funding from the bin fund, and that of these 90, there is a clear bias towards London and the South with almost two thirds of councils receiving funding in comparison to less than 18% in the North; and

(k)        believes that despite some teething problems, the change to alternate week collection has gone smoothly, and notes that the change is now saving at least £2.4m per year, which is money the current Administration will use to protect other vital services from this Government's reckless cuts.

On being put to the vote, the amendment was carried.

The original Motion, as amended, was then put as a Substantive Motion in the following form and carried:-