The best value inspection team gave the council's service one star for household refuse collection, bulk refuse collection, recycling and home composting which cost 2 million in 2001/02. The service includes bring sites, a kerbside paper collection and a subsidised compost bin scheme.
The inspectors found that there has been a recent increase in the council's efforts to encourage re-use and recycling including working in partnership with other local authorities and commercial operators and said that they expect the service to improve. The inspectors added that while the council's current recycling rate is 3.6%, it should meet is 2003/4 target of 10% but said that a lot more work is needed to recycle 18% by 2005. The council only started to recycle some of the garden waste in August 2001.
Andy Walford, acting regional director, Central Region Best Value Inspection Service, said: “The council's track record of working in partnership and the recent increase in recycling is promising. The council has demonstrated commitment, capacity and determination to make improvement although it faces considerable challenges in changing its current service arrangements.”
The council has recently increased the number of “bring” sites where residents can deposit newspapers, glass and textiles from 10 to 21. And in October 2001 it increased its kerbside recycling scheme from 20% to 80% of households. The council is now piloting a multi-material kerbside collection scheme with a view to introducing a
“twin bin” system by April 2002.
But the inspectors found that the amount of waste was rising and this was not being helped by modest waste reduction targets. “We found some of the targets set within the service profile for recycling and composting to be modest with no increase on the previous year and targets for domestic refuse collection were not challenging when
compared against performance in previous years.”
The amount of waste increased from 300 tonnes per month (1995) to 375 tonnes (2000). Bulk refuse tipped over the same period rose from around 60 tonnes to around 90 tonnes. The inspectors said: “Working practices do little to encourage the public to reduce the amount of waste generated.”
The refuse and recycling service costs 48 per household with the council's recycling service costing 22,000 per year and the subsidised compost bin service costing 3,730 a year.
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