The Chairman explained the performance updates on the agenda had been requested so the Committee could be informed of the performance relating to this Committee’s terms of reference prior to performance reports being presented to the Policy and Resources Committee.

John Edwards, Street Scene Operations Manager and Liz Hazell, Environmental Improvement Manager provided the Committee with an overview of the performance of their departments.

Mr Edwards explained that Keep Britain Tidy was commissioned to undertake three street cleansing surveys across the borough in line with the Defra Ni195 guidelines.  Performance had fallen slightly showing that 5% of the streets in the borough had below the accepted standard for litter.  However, when compared against national and South East benchmarks the borough had performed better, with the exception of fly-posting.

When looking at land types, litter in industry and warehousing areas showed the worst performance.  This was being addressed through changes to the cleansing schedule, provision of bins and enforcement.  Detritus on rural roads and other highways showed lowest performance.  This was expected due to the nature of the environment and country paths that would not be swept.  Graffiti on ‘other highways’ showed the lowest performance.  When looked at in detail were found to be on rail land and footpaths between roads and estate, usually in private ownership.

Fly tipping incidences went up by 31 incidents last year compared to the previous year. Most of which was black sacks in urbanised areas.  Teams were to trying to identify reason for this.  Close monitoring of the tips and waste stations will be carried out to establish if there were any changes in performance in the first quarter of 2016.

Elizabeth Hazell, Environment Improvement Manager briefed the Committee on the waste and recycling performance.  She confirmed performance finished last year at a recycling rate of 47.97% which was lower than the previous year of 49.11%.  However, the tonnage of recycling collected for 2015 was much higher than 2014 with the exception of a three month period when it was slightly lower.  Figures for April 2016 were available showing the general trend was upwards.

Overall composting rates were lower and recycling rates were higher showing an overall increase through collecting more tonnage of recycling material and an increase in food and garden waste.

Waste arisings for 2014 and 2015 showed similar patterns in performance and was the lowest for the last three years.

A contamination rate target of 8% and below, which was introduced this year and work was underway to meet this.

New Antisocial Behaviour Crime and Policing Act powers have enabled enforcement officers to tackle waste and noise issues resulting in a higher compliance rate.  Fly tipping figures from April 2016 show five fixed penalty notices have been issued and three prosecutions have been achieved.  It was noted that cases of fly tipping had to be proven beyond all reasonable doubt in order to prosecute.

The Committee noted the updates on Environment performance and agreed written reports would be provided for future performance updates.