Meeting documents

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor David Budd (Purbeck District Council), Councillor Alan Thacker (West Dorset District Council) and Grace Evans (Legal Advisor to the DWP).

Substitute members who attended the meeting included Councillors Patricia Jamieson (Christchurch Borough Council), Barry Quinn (Purbeck District Council) and Timothy Yarker (West Dorset District Council).

Councillors are required to comply with the requirements of the Localism Act 2011 regarding disclosable pecuniary interests.

§     Check if there is an item of business on this agenda in which the member or other relevant person has a disclosable pecuniary interest.

§     Check that the interest has been notified to the Monitoring Officer (in writing) and entered in the Register (if not this must be done on the form available from the clerk within 28 days).

§     Disclose the interest at the meeting (in accordance with the County Council’s Code of Conduct) and in the absence of a dispensation to speak and/or vote, withdraw from any consideration of the item.

The Register of Interests is available on Dorsetforyou.com and the list of disclosable

pecuniary interests is set out on the reverse of the form.

There were no declarations by members of any disclosable pecuniary interests under the Code of Conduct.

To confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 11 September 2018.

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 September 2018 were confirmed and signed.

Public Speaking

There were no public questions received at the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 21(1).

There were no public statements received at the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 21(2).

Petitions

There were no petitions received in accordance with the County Council’s petition scheme at this meeting. 

To consider a report by the Head of Service (Strategy) of the Dorset Waste Partnership (attached).

The Joint Committee considered its work programme and were advised of forthcoming items in January 2019.

Noted

To consider a report by the Director of the Dorset Waste Partnership (attached).

The Joint Committee considered a report by the Director of the Dorset Waste Partnership (DWP) that predicted a projected adverse variance of £180k in 2018/19 based on the first half of the financial year.

The Finance and Commercial Manager outlined the summary table for the predicted variances included in the report and advised that any overspend would come from the Budget Equalisation Reserve (BER) which was currently £1.2m, before any further funding by partner councils was required should the overspend accumulate beyond this amount.

Significant items that were highlighted included:-

• high spending areas during the first quarter had reduced considerably within operations and street cleansing;
• worsening transport costs due to vehicle fuel prices, accounting for £166k overspend and the vehicle maintenance budget that had experienced several expensive months;
• the price of dry mixed recyclate had remained steady during the past 3 months with a forecast variance of £731k;
• a small favourable variance of £40k with regard to consultancy.

Members requested an update on progress with the procurement of in cab technology "Bartec" and were advised that the system would shortly go live in the garden waste and trade waste vehicles with expected savings to be made within the first 6 months. The system was comprised of a screen in each cab and back office system to allow live information to be sent directly to the office.  In terms of garden waste, all bin locations were stored within the system along the garden waste route and for trade waste, operatives would indicate once a bin had been collected at each site.

The Chairman asked about the cost profile of beach cleaning activity which was primarily a summer activity and it was clarified that this cost included street cleansing and that resources were diverted to street cleaning during the busy summer period.

The Chairman asked about the variance in relation to the reduction in capital financing costs and whether this was as a result of acquisitions being deferred during the year or late purchase of a vehicle.

It was confirmed that the main change related to the assumptions made and that no construction on the ground would take place at the new waste facility at Blandford prior to 31 March 2019. 

Members asked about work to review assisted collections to assess whether these were still necessary.  They were informed that annual reviews of assisted collections had resulted in a 50% reduction in some areas.  The reviews were conducted in accordance with DWP policy and involved writing to residents and asking them to re-register.  The use of in cab technology would also help to address this. 

Noted

To consider a joint report by the Director and the Treasurer of the Dorset Waste Partnership (attached).

The Joint Committee considered a joint report by the Director and the Treasurer of the DWP containing the draft revenue estimates for 2019-20 and the assumptions of capital spend for 2019-20 and the longer term.  Responsibility for approval of the draft revenue estimates would now sit with the Dorset Council Shadow Executive Committee.

The report was introduced by the Director who outlined the summary of the Dorset Council waste budget requirement for 2019-20 in appendix 1 of the report. She explained that the DWP budget had been constructed differently, through annual contributions from partner councils.  One off adjustments to the budget that would leave Dorset Council no better or worse off included the elimination of inter-council payments, support costs such as HR, IT and Legal Services and changes in pension accounting. These budget items would be shown elsewhere in the Dorset Council finances in future.  The adjusted 2018-19 budget, after removing the one-off adjustments was £31.518m.

Other assumptions included the following:-

• that the DWP would continue to deliver services in Christchurch in 2019-20, resulting in an income from the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP).  If that service was not delivered by the DWP it would have a nil impact on the budget as the DWP would not incur those costs.
• that the vehicle procurement programme would be approved and that worn out vehicles in Shaftesbury and Ferndown were replaced.  This would be considered by the Shadow Executive alongside other capital bids.

The cost pressures were outlined in the table, including the costs associated with a change in service model from tri-stream to 2 separate vehicles in the East and North of the County, resulting in additional drivers and loaders.  This would result in savings in haulage as waste could be directly delivered rather than via a transfer station from these areas.

A range of deliverable savings options had been applied to the budget in 2019-20 that would not have a visible impact on services.  These included items such as savings from vacancy management, piloting in cab technology in the commercial fleet, changes in haulage arrangements (assuming a change in the service model), and £200k income from garden and commercial waste.  The behaviour change campaigns had been partly responsible for a reduction in tonnages this year and a "hanger" leaflet was currently being piloted in North/East Dorset.  People were also thinking about what they purchased and how they recycled plastics due to national awareness and it was predicted that this would continue in future.

An assumption of £200k income had been made with regard to the new Weymouth Town Council as it was set to assume legal responsibility for beach and seafront cleansing in Weymouth with delivery of the service by the DWP on its behalf. 

The additional income required for a standstill budget was £1.198m, a proportion of which would be met by BCP Council.  The net funding requirement to be met by the Dorset Council was £28.638m.

Based on the predicted outturn £1m would remain in the BER  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

To consider a report by the Director of the Dorset Waste Partnership (attached).

The Joint Committee considered a report outlining the Business Plan for the waste function of the new Dorset Council for 2019-20.

The Finance and Commercial Manager explained that there were no major changes in the policy and strategy being proposed.  In response to a question he confirmed that the £75k for technical advice in support of the complex contractual arrangements was used for the procurement of disposal contracts.

Noted

To answer any questions received in writing by the Chief Executive by not later than 10.00am on 31 October 2018.

No questions were asked by members under Standing Order 20 (2).