Issue - meetings

Report of the Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste  (HIW/17/14) seeking approval to changes to discretionary payments to Community Composting Groups, the Household Waste Recycling Centres Chargeable Waste Scheme, Trailer Restrictions and Non-acceptable Waste Policy, attached.  

(Councillors Brazil, Dewhirst, Hook, Julian, Westlake and Wright attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste (HIW/17/14) seeking approval to changes to the Household Waste Recycling Centres Chargeable Waste Scheme, Trailer Restrictions and Non-acceptable Waste Policy and to discretionary payments to Community Composting Groups.

The Report summarised the responses received to a recent public consultation on those issues and on the subsequent proposals now submitted to change charges for materials received at the Household Waste Recycling Centres and vary the level of recycling credit paid to Community Composting groups: issues raised by Members of the Council during consideration and setting of the Council’s budget for 2017/18.

Members noted that the policy revisions now proposed would enable non-statutory construction and demolition/DIY waste materials to be received at recycling centres for a reasonable charge while further restricting the potential for trade waste abuse at recycling centres; further the proposals would see, over time, the alignment of  the credit paid to community composting groups with the rate Devon paid  to its contractor for composting the same materials.

The Chief Officer’s Report also included reference to an Impact Assessment relating to the possible impacts of the proposal, which had made available previously for the attention of Members at this meeting in order that the Cabinet might have full regard to the responsibilities placed upon it to exercise its Public Sector Equality Duty under s149 of the Equality Act 2010, where relevant.  The Assessment recognised that no direct or unmanageable impacts had been identified.

The matter having been debated and the options and/or alternatives and other relevant factors (e.g. financial, risk management and legal considerations and Public Health impact) set out in the Head of Service’s Report and/or referred to above having been considered:

It was MOVED by Councillor Croad, SECONDED by Councillor Hart, and

RESOLVED

(a) that approval be given to the revisions to the Household Waste Recycling Centre policy summarised above and set out in section 3 of Report HIW/17/14, from 1 April 2017;

(b) that approval be also given to the recycling credit paid to Community Composting Groups being from £58/t to £50/t for all tonnages up to 500 tonnes per annum from April 2017 for one year, reducing further over the subsequent 2 years to the rate similar to that which the County Council pays to its contractor to enable Community Composting Groups to consider alternative sources of funding.

[NB: The Impact Assessment referred to above may be viewed alongside Minutes of this meeting and may also be available at:  http://new.devon.gov.uk/impact/].