Cabinet Member for Environment
Decision:
Decisions made by Cabinet:-
1.1 That the Cabinet approves entering into a further 5-year period of the Inter Authority Agreement between the Waste Collection Authorities and the Waste Disposal Authority.
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Reason for Decision: Working collaboratively across the Suffolk Waste Partnership benefits both the Waste Disposal Authority and Waste Collections Authorities in setting out clearly both working arrangements and recycling performance payments.
Alternative Options Considered and Rejected:
The alternative to entering into a further extension of the Inter Authority Agreement would be to stop working collaboratively across Suffolk and potentially have Suffolk County Council as the Waste Disposal authority ‘direct’ collection arrangements in the Districts which would not be financially advantageous to the authority.
Any Declarations of Interest declared: None
Any Dispensation Granted: None
Minutes:
93.1 Councillor Ward introduced the report and MOVED the recommendations in the report, which Councillor Maybury SECONDED.
93.2 In his introduction Councillor Ward informed Cabinet that the purpose of the report was to agree to a continuation of the Inter Authority Agreement which expired in April 2019, for a further 5-year period and to agree the revised Recycling Performance Payments for the various commodities from 2019 to 2024 as set out in 4.8 of the report. The agreement sets out a clear framework of how the Suffolk Waste Partnership would work together and agree funding for all authorities to budget with some certainty. There were 3 options for dealing with recycling arrangements and Suffolk has always opted for a Local Agreement, which had worked extremely well for the benefit of all Suffolk Waster Partnership partners.
93.3 The principles of the agreement were set out in 4.7 of the report and have not changed. The most significant change had been recycling performance payments made to the collection authorities for organic waste. These had reduced from a payment of £54.76 per tonne to £30 per tonne. This reduction was well sign posted and was a result of a significant piece of work undertaken by the Suffolk Waste Partnership over 3 years ago. This resulted in all other Suffolk Authorities apart from Ipswich moving to a subscription-based garden waster service. During the 3-year transition period Mid Suffolk and Babergh’s recycling performance payments were preserved. All reductions have been incorporated into the budget process. The garden waste service still netted Mid Suffolk and Babergh approx. £250,000 per year each. The other changes in the payment schedule were for Bring site payments which would be reduced to £30 per tonne, however due to the 3rd party payments, Mid Suffolk and Babergh would each also receive a grant of £35,000 per year. Some additional changes were agreed, due to the uncertainty of the recycling commodity market globally, the waste collection authorities were totally exposed to any changes. Suffolk County County would now fund 50% of any increase above a £25 gate fee for materials and recycling facility and 100% above a £50 gate fee. This had limited the financial risk to the waste collection authorities.
93.4 The Suffolk Waste Partnership continued to work very successfully as a collaborative partnership and by endorsing the report provided that ongoing commitment.
93.5 Councillor Arthey, being the Council representative on the Suffolk Waste Partnership made a short statement explaining the background to the agreement and informed Cabinet that by joining with other authorities in Suffolk, the Council and the other authorities in the partnership had been able to make savings and secure considerable amounts of funding in order to make changes across Suffolk to a three- bin collection service which as a result of these and recycling initiatives had increased the recycling rates by nearly 50%. In simple terms the inter-authority agreement balanced out the amount that the County saved for having to landfill all energy from waste. And as a result of this the Council received a credit.
93.6 Councillor McCraw queried why the proposed payments per tonne for recycling performance payments for Ipswich Borough Council were £44.95 compared to everybody else getting £30 a tonne?
93.7 In response the Assistant Director for the Environment and Commercial Partnerships informed Cabinet that Ipswich Borough Council had a higher fee because they have declined to go to a subscription based service and there was an obligation for the County Council, because Ipswich put a certain amount of non-cooked food waste into their bins it was then classed as a municipal waste stream and therefore they got close to the statutory minimum for their organic waste disposal, whereas the other authorities had reached an agreement with the County to reduce the payment to £30 per tonne because it was largely garden waste.
It was Resolved:-
(i) That the Council enters into a further 5-year period of the Inter Authority Agreement between the Waste Collection Authorities and the Waste Disposal Authority.
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Reason for Decision:-
Working collaboratively across the Suffolk Waste Partnership benefits both the Waste Disposal Authority and Waste Collections Authorities in setting out clearly both working arrangements and recycling performance payments.
Supporting documents: