The following item of Opposition Business is proposed by Cllr C Cushing, seconded by Cllr N Dixon:
New Council Waste and Recycling Collection Timetable:
At the start of September a new waste and recycling collection timetable was implemented. This Council profoundly regrets the multitude of problems experienced by residents across North Norfolk with missed collections and for the confusion over which day to put the bins out and which day they are actually collected. While the task of reorganising the waste and recycling collection rounds is both complex and prone to errors there’s clearly been significant failures in planning, staff training at operator and call centre levels, vehicle and driver resourcing and anticipating contingencies problems.
This is the most visible of the public services NNDC provides and, although it contracts the delivery of the service to Serco, it retains responsibility for it. While Serco must accept blame for its failures in delivering the collection service, NNDC must accept responsibility for ensuring the collection round transition project was properly planned, adequately resourced (in terms of staff, vehicles, familiarisation training and call centre capacity) and had contingency arrangements in place to cope with missed collections. It had a duty to work very closely with Serco to ensure all those were confidently covered before agreeing the project start; clearly that has not gone well with some areas and rounds being more affected than others.
For its part, NNDC must hold its hands up and this motion calls on this Council to publicly apologise to residents and businesses for its part in those service delivery failures and to redouble its efforts to work with Serco to restore the expected service delivery standards across the District.
Minutes:
The Chairman invited Cllr C Cushing to introduce the motion. He began by saying that the Council’s waste contractor, Serco, had introduced a new collection timetable at the start of September 2022, which affected 90% of households in the District. Given the scale of the changes, it was to be expected that there would be some issues for a couple of weeks. However, the disruption was much worse than expected, with 2000 missed bin collections. This compared to an average of 250 prior to the timetable changes. Cllr Cushing said that the local MP had been inundated with complaints from residents and he was aware of one resident in his own ward who had not had a bin collection for 4 weeks. They had spoken to the Council and contacted Serco but had not seen any results. He went onto say that all residents knew that NNDC was the authority responsible for bin collections, and although Serco’s management team must accept the blame for what had happened, the Council must also accept that it was responsible for working with them to minimise the disruption. Cllr Cushing said that there was no blame on Serco operatives at all but he wondered what oversight the Portfolio Holder for Environment had of the situation. He concluded by saying that the Council must apologise to residents and redouble efforts to work with Serco to resolve the problems.
Cllr N Dixon seconded the motion. He reserved his right to speak.
The Chairman invited Cllr N Lloyd, Portfolio Holder for Environment, to respond. He began by saying that if residents ever received less than good service then it was of great concern. The Leader, Cllr Adams, had apologised in the latest edition of the Council’s magazine, Outlook. Cllr Lloyd added that he had also apologised when he had attended the Overview & Scrutiny Committee recently. He said that he would like to apologise once again and reassure residents that the number of missed collections was now back to pre-timetable change levels. Cllr Lloyd explained that the collection rounds needed to be reorganised because housing stock across the District had increased in recent years and there had also been a significant rise in the amount of trade waste that needed to be collected. He added that the contract also included two Conservative controlled councils and changes to collection rounds had been implemented in Breckland and Kings Lynn and West Norfolk before being introduced in North Norfolk. Six additional vehicles had been hired to support the changes and practice runs had been carried out in advance. In addition, leaflets advising residents of the changes had been distributed. He said that he resented the suggestion that officers did not work with Serco to address any problems.
Cllr Lloyd said that Serco had fallen below expected standards. It should be remembered, however, that since Brexit there had been a shortage of HGV drivers and it had taken some time to recruit drivers for waste vehicles. They had then had to work a 7 day week to catch up, with the situation being made worse by the additional Bank Holiday for Her Majesty the Queen’s funeral. He reminded Members that there had been a seamless transfer of the service from Kier to Serco in 2020 and the waste collection service had been maintained throughout the pandemic. He welcomed the feedback but felt that some members would be fully appraised of the situation if they had attended the recent member briefings. Cllr Lloyd concluded by saying that he apologised once again to any residents who had been affected. He would not, however, accept any criticism of NNDC staff.
Cllr L Shires, Portfolio Holder for Organisational Resources, thanked the Customer Services Team for stepping up to field a large volume of calls. She said that she wanted to remind everyone that the Overview & Scrutiny Committee could call in items and she was not aware of the changes to bin collection rounds being called in before they were implemented. She added that residents phoned the Council initially to raise concerns because the Customer Services team had such an excellent reputation.
Cllr A Brown referred members to page 3 of the Outlook magazine which included an apology from the Leader to all affected residents. He reiterated that Cllr Lloyd had also apologised at the November meeting of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee. He said that 70k bins a week were collected and the number of missed collections amounted to 0.65% if this. It was still too many but all things considered, was not high. He went onto say that any trial period would present challenges, particularly as it had been many years since the rounds had been reviewed. In addition, allowances needed to be made for crew sickness. He concluded by saying that there were issues at management level at Serco.
Cllr S Penfold commented that Cllr Cushing was clear that the operatives were not being blamed but it appeared that this did not extend to NNDC staff. He said he was not supportive of any implied attacks against officers. He always received an excellent response whenever he contacted NNDC officers for assistance.
Cllr E Withington said that there had been a lot of issues with waste collection in her ward, Sheringham, however most of them were in the lokes. She said that any missed Friday collections were done on a Sunday to catch up. She too was disappointed to hear the comments regarding NNDC staff as she also found them to be extremely helpful.
Cllr N Housden commented that when Serco had attended Overview & Scrutiny Committee in 2021, he had asked if there was a strategic crisis management plan in place and they had confirmed that there was not. He had asked them again in October 2022 and they admitted that there was still no plan in place, and again at the November meeting. Cllr Housden said that a contract of this size should have strategic crisis planning in place.
The Leader, Cllr T Adams, said that in the district of Breckland, waste collection was now at 100% and North Norfolk aimed to be at that level in December. He reminded members that it was always anticipated that it would take 12 weeks to implement the changes. He said that he received daily updates from officers on the situation and he was confident that the situation was almost back to normal.
Cllr J Toye praised officers for their hard work. He said waste collection was a high profile topic and members must engage fully to ensure that they were kept informed, so that they could reassure residents who had concerns.
Cllr G Perry-Warnes commented that residents phoned the Council because the bin collection vehicles had the NNDC logo on them, not because the customer service experience was excellent, as suggested by Cllr Shires.
The Chairman invited the seconder of the motion, Cllr N Dixon, to speak. He began by saying that it was unfortunate and disappointing that some members had chosen to focus on what they perceived to be implied criticism of officers. He said that the motion was about ensuring that the Council took responsibility for delivery of this service and that rested with the Chamber – as elected representatives. He went onto say it was about accountability not blame. The Council needed to bold enough to say that things had not gone well and it needed to do better. Referring to Cllr Shires comments about Overview & Scrutiny Committee’s role, he said that it had not been a key decision taken by Cabinet and therefore there had not been any opportunity for call-in or challenge. There had been no foresight to see what was coming.
The Chairman then invited the proposer, Cllr Cushing to close the debate. He said that the response from the Administration was very disappointing. Residents were at the heart of the motion. He went onto say that meetings of Full Council were reported in the local press and it was a good opportunity for members to publicly apologise for the mistakes that had been made.
Cllr Cushing requested a recorded vote.
When put to the vote, 13 members voted in favour, 19 against and 4 abstained. The motion was therefore not supported.