Agenda item

The following recommendations were made by Cabinet to Full Council:

Agenda item 11 – Purchase of Two Additional Refuse Collection Vehicles

1.    That Cabinet recommend to Full Council an addition to the Capital programme of £385,000 to purchase two new refuse collection vehicles and that the £385,000 be added to the residual £65,000 that is left over from the original budget to purchase refuse vehicles from 2019 to date.

2.    That Cabinet recommend to full Council that the purchase be funded by borrowing of £335,000 and a revenue contribution of £50,000.

At the request of Cabinet, Governance, Risk and Audit Committee (GRAC) were asked to review the risk elements of the proposals at their meeting on 13^th June. As the Full Council agenda was published before the meeting was held, the Chairman will provide a verbal update, outlining any recommendations and comments, at the Full Council meeting on 21 June

Overview & Scrutiny Committee considered the recommendations at their meeting on 14^th June. As the Full Council agenda was published before the meeting was held, the Chairman will provide a verbal update, outlining any recommendations and comments, at the Full Council meeting on 21 June.

Cabinet Agenda item 11 – Purchase of Two Additional Refuse Collection Vehicles

Cllr C Ringer, Portfolio Holder for IT, Environmental Services and Waste, introduced this item. He explained that the report set out proposals for the purchase of two new waste collection vehicles, for the collection of garden and trade waste. These would be funded by borrowing £335k, with a revenue contribution of £50k. Cllr Ringer explained that both garden waste and trade waste were services that the Council could charge for and there had been a considerable increase in demand for both services. Garden waste subscriptions had increased by around 1000 per annum since 2016/17 and over the same period trade waste had increased from 88k to 130k – an increase of 50%. Currently 64% of trade waste collections were included as part of the domestic rounds, whilst this could be expedient for holiday lets, it did place additional constraints on the crews as they had to return to the tip more frequently. It was hoped than an additional vehicle would ease the strain and improve the service overall. In line with contract requirements, these vehicles would be owned by NNDC and funded through a combination of a previously agreed, residual budget of £65k, a revenue contribution of £50k from performance failure deductions in the year 2021/ 2022 and newly agreed borrowing of £335k. Subject to final negotiations with Serco, it may be possible to utilise the performance management deductions for 2022/2023 to further offset the cost of one or both vehicles. Cllr Ringer said that the need for two additional vehicles had come about as the result of the Council’s success in attracting new customers. He acknowledged that concerns had been raised about the timing of the report but it was important that the Council took the opportunity to use Serco’s pre-allocated build slot with the vehicle manufacturer rather than wait. A delay could result in the vehicles not being available until 2024/2025, whereas a decision to go ahead now, would result in the vehicles being ready for later this year.

The Chairman invited Members to speak:

Cllr C Cushing said that he had been present for the discussions on this matter at Cabinet, Governance, Risk & Audit Committee (GRAC) and Overview & Scrutiny Committee. He said that the initial Cabinet paper had not included sufficient background information and he would not have supported the recommendations at that time, however, additional information had been provided at subsequent committee meetings and he was now supportive of the proposals. Concerns had been raised by members as to how the Council would pay for the new vehicles as very little detail had been provided in the Cabinet report. He said it was important that members had a good understanding of the financial implications of such decisions and it must be set out much more clearly in the future where funding would come from for any proposals on this scale.

Cllr S Penfold asked Cllr Ringer if he was confident that the Council could maintain a good service until the vehicles were ready.  Cllr Ringer replied that Serco was currently providing a fourth garden waste vehicle at their own expense to limit any disruption, so that should be sustainable.

Cllr T FitzPatrick referred to page 73 the section entitled ‘options considered’. One of the options listed was ‘do nothing’. He said that in his view that wasn’t an option, as residents expected their bins to be collected on time. He then referred to the section on ‘consultations’ which referenced ‘future round reorganisation’. This gave him cause for concern as the ramification of the last reorganisation were still being dealt with. He asked that any future change to the rounds was handled carefully. Cllr Ringer agreed, saying that he shared his views regarding the previous reorganisation and he reassured Cllr FitzPatrick that lessons had been learned.

Cllr J Toye thanked Cllr Cushing for his summary of the discussion at the GRAC meeting. He said as the new Chairman of GRAC he was reassured that there were effective systems in place to provide a check and balance, should concerns be raised.

Cllr L Shires, Portfolio Holder for Finance & Assets, thanked Cllr Cushing for raising different points as the report progressed through the various committees, which helped members fully understand the proposals. She said that GRAC had added a lot of value regarding any financial risks associated with the recommendations and she agreed that the Cabinet report had been light on detail and that was why Cabinet had referred it to GRAC for further discussion. She said that she was content that GRAC had drilled down into the financial risks of the decision but added that she would never be happy with the Council borrowing money and she was hopeful that it may not be necessary. However, it should be remembered that the proposals were due to business growth and that additional vehicles were required to meet demand.

Cllr A Brown thanked Cllr Cushing for his comments and said that he had requested that it was referred to GRAC for assessment of any risks. He said that he was not in any way undermining the report, he was supportive of the proposals and he agreed with Cllr Shires’ comments that the Council was essentially a victim of its own success. It would be unfortunate if collections were missed due to lack of capacity. He concluded by saying that he noted the reference to the vehicles being capable of being converted to HVO fuel in the future.

It was proposed by Cllr C Ringer, seconded by Cllr L Shires and

RESOLVED

1.     To approve an addition to the Capital programme of £385,000 to purchase two new refuse collection vehicles and that the £385,000 be added to the residual £65,000 that is left over from the original budget to purchase refuse vehicles from 2019 to date.

2.     That the purchase be funded by borrowing of £335,000 and a revenue contribution of £50,000.