To respond to questions from members of the public, received in accordance with Procedure Rule 10.
The deadline for receipt of questions is 5pm on Tuesday 19 April 2022.
Question from Mr Daniel Kuszel:
“Godalming recently received a flyer from the Liberal Democrats, with the results of a local survey showing that the poor state of street cleaning is a significant concern of residents - in fact it was the most significant concern, with 20% of residents highlighting it as a failure of Waverley Borough Council. The quality of street cleaning in Godalming has been poor for a number of years, and a survey was not needed to confirm this, however, what is the administration doing to improve street cleaning and weed control in Godalming.”
Minutes:
108.1 The following question was received from Mr Daniel Kuszel in accordance with Procedure Rule 10:
“Godalming recently received a flyer from the Liberal Democrats, with the results of a local survey showing that the poor state of street cleaning is a significant concern of residents - in fact it was the most significant concern, with 20% of residents highlighting it as a failure of Waverley Borough Council. The quality of street cleaning in Godalming has been poor for a number of years, and a survey was not needed to confirm this, however, what is the administration doing to improve street cleaning and weed control in Godalming.”
108.2 Councillor Steve Williams, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Sustainability gave the following response:
“Thank you for your question regarding street cleansing in Godalming.
On street cleansing, I would like to put things into context. The waste and street cleansing contract with Biffa has been running for 27 months, of which 23 months have, like all other services, been affected by the covid pandemic. This has led directly to the following challenges:
· massive driver and crew absences due to direct covid impacts - personal illness, self-isolation, bereavement
· subsequent impact of HGV driver losses from early 2021, with up to 25% of driver posts being vacant at any time since then
· around 15% more household waste arisings due to more people at home, so roughly 1 days’ worth more waste every week for Biffa to collect
· a 27% rise in fly tipping cases, in the first year of the covid pandemic
In that time Biffa have, over and above the normal work
· completed the planned collection round optimisation, which has reduced the contract cost and reduced our carbon footprint due to reduced mileage and the use of more fuel-efficient vehicles.
· taken on over 1800 new garden waste customers
· provided an additional street sweeping truck for our contract at no extra cost
· spent over an additional quarter of a million pounds in the current financial year, to keep the collection rounds operational in the face of the HGV driver crisis. This was to cover
o the well-publicised, unanticipated driver salary costs
o additional vehicles to allow lower qualified drivers maintain the collection rounds
During this time, Officers have met with Biffa almost daily and members have been kept well informed of any issues and changes to services as they arose.
Those contract discussions have always centred on maintaining the waste collection rounds as a priority over street cleansing and maintaining our statutory collections of refuse, food waste and dry recyclables over garden waste.
Therefore, we agreed that street cleansing operations could be reduced over the pandemic period and the normal schedules permitted to slip, with the suspension of any default penalties, as long as necessary responsive work was then carried out where required. In turn, this has allowed street cleansing staff to cover the agreed priority, of refuse and recycling collection rounds, when crews have not been available.
However, in agreeing those priorities, Biffa have been responding to requests for one off, and additional street cleansing operations. These have typically been where there was significant littering in specific areas and high levels of leafing, or where safety has become an issue.
With regard to weed spraying, Waverley Borough Council carries this out on behalf of Surrey County Council as part of an agency agreement though our ground’s maintenance contract. This agreement requires the spraying of weeds on highways and footways once a year and this will, we anticipate, be carried out during the months of May, June and July. Its effectiveness will depend on the weather conditions at the time.
We are also cognisant to the need for the work to be compliant with our Pesticides Policy and Action which is all about avoiding the use of noxious chemicals on Waverley land and allowing biodiversity to flourish so in four areas of the borough in Farnham, Cranleigh, Haslemere and Godalming, we will also be continuing with our trial of an alternative product to a traditional herbicide as part of the overall delivery of our Pesticide Policy and Action Plan.”