Agenda Item No 10
Community and Environment
Board
29 October 2007
Capital Bid – Recycling Funding
Report of the Assistant Director
(Streetscape)
1
Summary
1.1
This report sets out the details of a successful bid for capital funding for refuse and
recycling projects made to Warwickshire County Council earlier this year and
outlines proposals for how the scheme will be implemented.
2
Recommendation to the Board
That the proposals outlined in the attached application for capital support be
endorsed by the Board and approval be given for scheme to be implemented.
3
Background
3.1
Members will recall that a report was presented to this Board on 11 June, 2007
asked for delegated authority to be granted to the Assistant Director (Streetscape), in
consultation with the Chairmen of this Board and the Resources Board, to make
funding bids for refuse and recycling projects. That delegated authority was granted
and a commitment was made that the details of any successful bid would be
reported back to the Board before any amount of the capital funding awarded was
committed by this Council
3.2
The bid (in the amount of £164,200) was drawn up by the Refuse & Recycling
Manager and approved by the Chairmen of the Community & Environment and
Resources Boards prior to being submitted to the County Council on 18 June 2007.
A copy of the original application for capital support is attached at Appendix A.
3.3
The Council received notification on 14 September, 2007 that the bid had been
approved and that £164,200 of capital support would be made available to the
Borough Council to enable the authority to extend and improve its recycling services.
4
The Bid
4.1
Details of the bid are included at Appendix A, but briefly it is proposed that the capital
funding granted by Warwickshire County Council be used to purchase two small
compactions vehicles, wheeled bins, bring banks and reusable bags to enable the
Council to both extend its current recycling services and introduce new ones.
4.2
The vehicles and containers will enable the Borough Council to extend kerbside
collections of garden waste and dry recyclables to cover all those isolated properties
not currently included, thereby improving recycling rates and meeting the
requirement of the Household Waste Recycling Act to collect at least two materials
from every household in the Borough. It is proposed to also use the vehicles to
collect from recycling containers at flats across the borough as well as servicing
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bring banks for cardboard and plastics at the Borough’s main recycling centre, in line
with Council priorities. It is hoped that the vehicles would also provide significant
spare capacity to enable bulky waste to be collected as well as domestic waste from
isolated properties. The size of the vehicles and their construction would mean that
the Health & Safety concerns associated with such activities at the moment would be
alleviated, while at the same time lowering collection costs.
4.3
Although capital funding of £164,200 will enable the vehicles and equipment to be
purchased, there will still be significant revenue costs, in the region of £56,300,
associated with maintaining and operating them. It has been calculated that utilising
the new, smaller vehicles would lead to savings of £20,076 (by bringing a currently
externalised service back in-house and through greater fuel efficiency) and that a
further £10,000 income from recycling credits could also be realised. There may
also be further income generated from the sale of the extra materials collected from
the extended kerbside recycling scheme. That would still leave a net ongoing
revenue cost to the Council of £26,920 in a full year.
4.4
The Council has received waste and recycling grants this year as well as funding
held in Streetscape reserves for refuse collection and recycling which could be
utilised to meet ongoing revenue costs over the initial period of the scheme and
these options are currently being considered and evaluated by Finance officers.
5
Report Implications
5.1
Financial Implications
5.1.1
The table below shows the ongoing additional costs of the Two Vehicles to be
purchased by Warwickshire County council for this Authority.
Budget
2007/08
£
(3 mths)
Costs of new Farid Minimatic Vehicle
Expenditure
Running costs – Maintenance, Fuel, tyres, Insurance etc.
(11,000 per vehicle x 2)
Budget
2008/09
£
(Full yr)
5,500
22,000
Additional manpower (1 employee from within current 4,860
refuse budget & one additional employee)
(includes Pay, NI and Superannuation)
20,080
Costs to create fund for replacement in 7 years time
(£51,015 x 2 vehicles/7 years
3,640
14,580
Additional Costs
14,000
56,660
Isolated collections brought back in house
169 properties per week @ £2 each
(4,310)
(17,250)
Fuel saving from missed collections
(630)
(2,500)
(2,500)
(10,000)
6,500
26,920
Savings to fund part of costs
Additional Income
Increased recycling credits
Total Cost per annum
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5.1.2
The authority is expected to receive £20,000 PSA2 reward grant in 2007/08 and
funding in 2007/08 from DEFRA through the LAA budget of £54,744 of which
£27,372 can be used for revenue spending. At this time it is unclear whether this
funding can be carried forward to 2008/09. In addition Streetscape have a Refuse
and Recycling reserve which could be utilised to meet ongoing revenue costs over
the initial period of the Scheme.
5.1.3
A growth bid has been put forward in the Budget Strategy 2008-09 which was
agreed by Board in September 2007, that a sum was included in 2009/10 for
additional costs to increase recycling to all properties by 2010.
5.2
Environment and Sustainability Implications
5.2.1
Increasing the amount and types of waste which are recycled is key to tackling the
Council’s key priority in this area through increasing recycling and diverting waste
from landfill. The use of smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles will also be of
environmental benefit and will ultimately be more sustainable.
5.3
Links to Council’s Priorities
5.3.1
Increasing the range and level of recycling is central to the Council’s priority of
“Protecting and Improving our Environment”.
The Contact Officer for this report is Richard Dobbs (719440).
Background Papers
Local Government Act 1972 Section 100D, as substituted by the Local Government Act, 2000 Section 97
Background Paper No
Author
Nature of Background Paper
Date
10/3
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