Items
No. |
Item |
1. |
Welcome and Housekeeping
The Chair to welcome attendees to the
meeting and outline basic housekeeping and fire safety
arrangements.
Additional documents:
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2. |
Apologies for Absence
Additional documents:
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3. |
Exclusion of Press and Public
To identify items where resolutions may be
moved to exclude the press and public
Additional documents:
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4. |
Declarations of Interest PDF 129 KB
Members to declare any interests they have in
the business to be considered at the meeting
Additional documents:
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5. |
Public Questions and Petitions
To receive any questions or petitions from
members of the public
Additional documents:
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6. |
Appointment of Deputy Chair of the Committee
To appoint Councillor Mike
Chaplin to serve as Deputy Chair of the Committee.
Additional documents:
Decision:
6.1
|
UNANIMOUSLY
AGREED: That the Waste and Street Scene Policy
Committee appoints Councillor Mike Chaplin to serve as Deputy Chair
of the Committee.
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7. |
Month 1 Monitoring, Financial Position and Budget Timetable PDF 456 KB
Report of the Director of Finance and
Commercial Services
Additional documents:
Decision:
7.1
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This report brings the
Committee up to date with the Council’s financial position as
at Month 1 2022/23. The report also sets out the proposed budget
timetable for the development of the 2023/24 budget
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7.2
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UNANIMOUSLY
AGREED: That the Waste and Street Scene Policy Committee:
-
(i)
notes the Council’s challenging financial position and the
Month 1 position;
(ii) notes the budget timetable
set out in this report including the requirement for the Committee
to plan to develop budget proposals over the course of the
summer;
(iii) notes that the Strategy
and Resources Committee agreed at its 31 May 2022 meeting to
“require any Policy Committee that is forecasting an
overspend on their budget to develop an action plan to address the
overspend in-year and ask the Finance Sub-Committee to monitor both
the development of any required action plans and delivery against
them”; and
(iv) commissions work from
officers to develop opportunities to address the underlying
inflationary pressures that will continue into next year to bring
spend back in line with budget.
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7.3
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Reasons for
Decision
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7.3.1
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Under section 25 of the Local Government Act
2003, the Chief Finance Officer of an authority is required to
report on the following matters:
•
the robustness of the estimates made for the purposes of
determining its budget requirement for the forthcoming year;
and
•
the adequacy of the proposed financial reserves.
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7.3.2
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There is also a
requirement for the authority to have regard to the report of the
Chief Finance Officer when making decisions on its budget
requirement and level of financial reserves.
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7.3.4
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By the law the Council
must set and deliver a balanced budget, which is a financial plan
based on sound assumptions which shows how income will equal spend
over the short- and medium-term. This can take
into account deliverable cost savings and/or local income
growth strategies as well as useable reserves. However, a budget
will not be balanced where it reduces reserves to unacceptably low
levels and regard must be had to any report of the Chief Finance
Officer on the required level of reserves under section 25 of the
Local Government Act 2003, which sets obligations of adequacy on
controlled reserves.
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7.4
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Alternatives Considered and Rejected
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7.4.1
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The Council is
required to both set a balance budget and to ensure that in-year
income and expenditure are balanced. No other alternatives were
considered.
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8. |
Food Waste Trial PDF 673 KB
Report of Director of Street Scene and
Regulation
Additional documents:
Decision:
8.1
|
The report
provides details for the introduction of a 12-week separate
food waste collection trial for approximately 8,000 households. The
purpose of this trial will be to test the real-life experience of
operating food waste collections in Sheffield and inform resource
requirements for the future expansion of a permanent food waste
collection service across the city. The duration and size of the
proposed trial has been determined to provide sufficient data to
inform the roll out of food waste collections citywide.
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8.2
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UNANIMOUSLY
AGREED: That the Waste and Street Scene Policy Committee
approves the delivery of a 12-week food waste recycling trial, to
approximately 8,000 households as detailed in this report;
and
The Waste and Street Scene
Policy Committee undertook a ballot on the days and areas that
should be included in the food waste trial, based on the parameters
provided in Appendix 4 of the report to the Committee.
RESOLVED BY
BALLOT:
(i)
That the days of collection should be Tuesday –
Friday;
(ii)
That for Tuesday the area should be Option 1 (Woodseats, Norton Lees, Meersbrook);
(iii)
That for Wednesday the area should be Option 1 (Chapeltown,
Ecclesfield, Burncross);
(iv)
That for Thursday the area should be Option 1 (Arbourthorne, Gleadless Valley); and
(v)
That for Friday the area should be Option 2 (Darnall).
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8.3
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Reasons for
Decision
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8.3.1
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The Environment
Act was enacted into UK Law in November 2021. This will lead to
some major changes to Sheffield’s waste and recycling
services, including mandating the introduction of separate, weekly
food waste collections. Experience of authorities already operating
food waste collections, demonstrates wide ranging performance in
terms of public participation in food waste collection services and
the amount of food waste collected.
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8.3.2
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Discussions are
underway with Veolia to plan for the delivery of a citywide food
waste recycling service. However, the wide-ranging factors and
influences on scheme performance, and lack of experience of
operating food waste collections in Sheffield makes it difficult to
model resource requirements, and associated cost
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8.4
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Alternatives Considered and Rejected
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8.4.1
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No trial
- This would mean that the introduction of a citywide food waste
collection service, as mandated through the Environment Act, would
be based on a desktop analysis and modelling, and the resource
requirements would not be informed by a real life delivery of food
waste collections in Sheffield.
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8.4.2
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Deliver a modified version of the trial
over a shorter period and/or with fewer households. This option
would reduce the financial cost to the Council for undertaking the
trial. However, the collection resources Page 31 Page 12 of 14 5.3
(vehicles and crew would not be fully deployed and there would be
minimal saving from this) and the quality and robustness of the
service performance data would be reduced.
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8.4.3
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Carrying out a modified version of the
trial over a longer period of time and/or with additional
households. This option would incur significant additional
costs that would have to be paid by the Council ...
view
the full decision text for item 8.
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9. |
Review of Private Hire and Hackney Carriage Driver Policy PDF 195 KB
Report of the Director of Operational
Services
Additional documents:
Decision:
9.1
|
The report
provides details of a revised Hackney Carriage and Private Hire
Driver’s Licence Policy. The Licensing Authority is seeking
approval of a revised policy, it was first published in 2016, the
policy provides information and guidance on: applications,
decision-making, and enforcement. In providing a publicly available
document, it allows: transparency, accountability, and
consistency.
The licensing
authority is responsible for the regulation of hackney carriage and
private hire drivers licensed in the district of Sheffield. Primary
legislation regulates the industry, namely: Town Police Clauses Act
1847, and Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act
1976.
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9.2
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UNANIMOUSLY
AGREED: That the amendment below is the Substantive Decision of
the Waste and Street Scene Policy Committee:
AMENDMENT: That
the Waste and Street Scene Policy Committee seek views of Licensing
Committee before the policy is approved for implementation; and
that the Private Hire and Hackney Carriage Driver Policy returns as
a recommendation for decision to this Committee September
2022.
Carried with 7 For,
2 Abstentions and 0 Against.
ORIGINAL
RECOMMENDATION FOR DECISION NOT PASSED:That
members of the Committee approve the revised Hackney Carriage &
Private Hire Drivers Licence Policy to come in to force on
1st September 2022.
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9.3
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Reasons for
Decision
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9.3.1
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The Committee
want a steer from Licensing Committee before making a decision on
implementing the revised Hackney Carriage & Private Hire
Drivers Licence Policy. The statutory guidance requires when
formulating a taxi and private hire vehicle policy, the primary and
overriding objective must be to protect the public.
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9.4
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Alternatives Considered and Rejected
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9.4.1
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The Waste and
Street Scene Policy Committee considered the recommendation to
approve the policy and rejected it because they wish to seek views
of Licensing Committee before making a decision because in setting
this policy the Council should intend that the Licensing Committee
who will deal with a large number of cases, ensure that cases will
be dealt with in a standard way: applying the same criteria and
attaching the same weight in each case, and so ensuring consistency
and administrative efficiency.
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10. |
Plan for 500k budget amendment for Street Scene Improvements PDF 423 KB
Report of the Director of
Street Scene and Regulations
Additional documents:
Decision:
10.1
|
The report
provides details for proposals on how to deliver the
£500k investment agreed as a budget amendment for 22/23. This
is a one-off budget lift so a mix of invest to save, and one-year
improvements are proposed to ensure sustainability.
A 500k budget amendment was
agreed for 22/23 with the following accompanying text:
‘Street clean environmental enforcement one-off funding
directed specifically to the areas of most need, to deal with
issues around litter, vermin and street
cleaning.’
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10.2
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UNANIMOUSLY
AGREED: That the Waste and Street Scene Policy Committee agrees
the spending proposals in the attached report to cover a mix of
clean up increased enforcement and ‘invest to save’
proposals to deliver quick wins in year and sustainable
improvements in the city over years to come.
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10.3
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Reasons for
Decision
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10.3.1
|
Local
Authorities have various duties to help maintain the local
environment. This includes the activities suggested in this report.
Under Part 4 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA), local
authorities have a statutory duty to keep relevant land free of
litter and refuse. Section 33 of the EPA provides for the offence
of fly tipping. The Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 requires
local authorities to take such steps as may be necessary to secure
so far as practicable that their district is kept free from
pests.
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10.3.2
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These proposals
offer the best balance of quick wins which most residents and
businesses will benefit from, alongside taking opportunities to
change and improve how services work and how we work with residents
and businesses to prevent problems in the future. This will ensure
improvements can be sustained and at the lowest possible
cost.
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10.4
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Alternatives Considered and Rejected
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10.4.1
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The main
alternative option was to put more or all the funding into
simply
doing one-year
increased cleaning and enforcement and including
more
litter clean ups
in between contractual Amey cleans.
However, there is
the obvious risk
from that, in that there is no sustainability once
the
money has gone.
SCC would risk having to spend another £500k
in
23/24 and
potentially each year to achieve the same gains. Also
having
done a huge
clean, but not changed how we work and more
prevention
activities,
residents would perceive an improvement and then
any
subsequent slide
very acutely thereby increasing pressure to
continue
the £500k
each year.
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10.4.2
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Instead, the proposals assume no additional
investment in year 2 or
beyond to maintain the improvements, although
there may be further
policy decisions required as the project
officers develop proposals. These
could be eg on the future level of waste disposal for
community litter
picks off the network if volunteering does
increase, although these are
not expected to be large costs compared to the
benefit in kind or the
original £500k.
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11. |
Waste and Street Scene Policy Committee Overview
Presentation by Director of Street Scene and
Regulation
Additional documents:
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12. |
Work Programme PDF 658 KB
Report of the Director of Legal and
Governance
Additional documents:
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