East Herts praised for improvements to waste services

East Hertfordshire district council's waste management service was described as &#39fa;ir' with 'promising' prospects for improvement in an Audit Commission report published this week. The council was given one star out of a possible three, for its waste services including refuse and recycling collections as well as abandoned vehicles removal and a trade waste collection service.

Nigel Smith, senior Audit Commission spokesperson, said: “A year ago the refuse collection and recycling service had many problems and local people were not being well served. However, since the introduction of a new contractor the situation has changed significantly. Key improvements are being progressively achieved which are noticed by local people. However, it is essential that the council continues to drive these improvements through to completion.”

MRS Environmental Services began a seven year waste and recyclables collection contract with the district council in August 2002. East Hertfordshire district council currently has a fortnightly kerbside paper collection for 42,000 of its 54,000 households. Its fortnightly green waste collections currently only cover 12,500 households but the council is planning to expand this to 22,500 in 2004-05.

Green waste
The report criticised the council for not providing green waste collections to all urban households and said that the council's plan to collect more recyclable materials is dependent on setting up a sorting facility in partnership with other local councils. It was also critical of the council's waste management service costs, with a budget of around 2.7million for 2003/04, but added that the costs were similar to waste collection authorities with similar a geographic spread of residents.

The council currently has a recycling and composting rate of 13%, which means it has already succeeded in its 2003/04 target. The report said: “The council is therefore on track to go onto achieve its 18% target for 2005/06, and indeed is hoping to exceed that and rise towards 25%.”

The report's main recommendations to the council were to improve communication with the public and to “ensure that the improvement plan is updated and integrated into the business plan for the service and builds in continuous service improvements that the public will notice and value.” The improvement plan was based on the results of a best value review carried out by the council in 2000/01.