scrutiny update 7 october 2020

Street Scene and Waste Performance and Finance

purpose of report

To provide an update on current performance and finance information requested by Scrutiny on;

Grass Cutting

Garden Waste

Wheelie bin charges

Missed bin collections

Performance data

Fly-tipping

This report provides a brief overview of performance during these unprecedented times, which have presented myriad challenges. Street Scene and Waste (SSW) has been working to make sure we have kept critical services running whilst following government guidance, listening to concerns from residents and keeping the staff and public safe. This has meant that from the beginning of lockdown SSW has been prioritising services and working to bring services back on line as guidelines changed and lockdown eased.

SSW has seen increased demand in areas such as fly-tipping, street cleansing and household waste tonnages. There have also been unusual patterns of behaviour and footfall as well as public disorder to adjust and respond to. With all of the challenges presented by COVID19, there has been a huge effort to keep things going, but also opportunities to do things differently.

GRASS CUTTING

DELIVERING THE STRATEGY - The Corporate Plan sets out a priority for Plymouth to be a green, sustainable city that cares about the environment. The Plymouth Plan wants to protect and enhance biodiversity with the Policy GRO6 “Delivering Plymouth’s Natural Network” seeking to ensure the natural environment is fully considered and that there is space for nature to thrive.

The traditional approach to grass cutting is becoming outdated and counter to the challenges we face in a climate emergency and plummeting insect numbers.

A small trial of an alternative approach to grass cutting regimes, as part of the climate emergency action plan, was ‘supercharged’ by Covid19. The 2020 approach has proved broadly popular and has been celebrated regionally by Devon Wildlife Trust and nationally by the National Trust and Buglife.

Many residents continue to be in touch - some to comment or complain but many with positive comments and customer reports of problems around grass cutting was one-third of 2019 volumes.

We were not alone during the pandemic, with 75% of Local Authorities reducing their regime by stopping or changing the way they cut grass. We prioritised amenity areas in parks, cemeteries and sports pitches.

SHORT BACK AND SIDES - Highway verge grass cutting commenced again in July. Wider verges got a schedule of short back and sides to keep the edges tidy and leave the middle longer. As always, these works have still been subject to disruption from heavy rainfall and any gaps in critical services that needed to be back-filled to ensure we prioritised essential lservices.

From August, full cuts began and by the end of October all grass and meadows will have received their final full cut ahead of the winter.

We are seeing some real advantages and are working through what this means exactly for the future, but initial findings are positive:

BIODIVERSITY GAINS - We have reduced the amount of grass being cut on over 1,000 areas across the city, in which more plant and animal species can thrive.

SPECIES SPOTTING - A survey on one innocuous roadside verge in Prince Rock highlighted 17 wild flower species spotted in one June day including a Bee Orchid.

100 PLANT SPECIES IN A MILE - Residents across the city were encouraged to support the effort to map the effects of reduced mowing. One lady in Eggbuckland wrote in to tell us how happy she was that she had recorded nearly 100 species of plants thriving within a mile of her home during her daily exercise.

TWICE AS MUCH – When you compare cut amenity grassland with longer meadow areas surveys in Plymouth show that there are twice the number of pollinating insects and species found in meadow areas. There are also over twice as many plant species in the meadow areas.

LESS CARBON AND FUEL - A review of fuel use currently shows that we have used 33% less fuel than we had at this stage last year. This has saved money but, more importantly, reduced the carbon footprint of the service.

NATURE-BASED SOLUTION - Studies show that every year, for every hectare of amenity grassland that is restored to meadow grassland, over 11 tonnes of CO2 are stored in the soil. If we apply this across the area of the city we will be making big gains in using the grassy areas of the city as a Nature-Based Solution towards our Climate Emergency and Carbon Reduction targets.

garden waste

COVID19 - Due to Covid19, we took action to safeguard our refuse driver numbers to ensure statutory waste streams continued to be collected. Leave was cancelled and the start of garden waste collection season was delayed. Some Local Authorities suspended statutory collections early on but Plymouth continued throughout lockdown without significant disruption.

Garden Waste 2020 season commenced 24 August on a revised frequency of four-weekly. This decision took into account the ongoing risks around driver numbers and the potential for increased volumes that would lead to routes not being completed as usual.

The re-start has been successful for the first complete cycle (four weeks);

39,000 residents have registered for garden waste collections.

27,337 properties presented for collection

627 tonnes collected (66% up on the first collection cycle in April 2019)

510 incidences of overfilled or contaminated bags

122 properties presented more than 4 bags

5% of missed bin reports - showing an improvement from the previous year

We have received a combined increase of garden waste volumes through Chelson Meadow and the commercial refuse transfer station compared with the same period in 2019. Altogether about 2,207 tonnes. It was important that we kept the refuse transfer station open throughout lockdown for commercial waste carriers so that those business could continue to operate. Chelson Meadow recycling centre reopened on 13 May.

wheelie bin charges

Since 2014, PCC has charged of £15 for the delivery of replacement waste containers. At the beginning of the pandemic, the option of collecting the bin free of charge was ceased, as it was not possible to provide a safe place to do so.

missed bin collections

At Scrutiny in October 2019 an overall improving picture of performance was presented and that has continued into 2020/21. New sources of crew data was also demonstrating that about a third of missed bin reports had a matching crew record of non-collection for a reason (contamination, blocked access, non-presentation).

COVID19 CHALLENGES - Covid19 has presented significant challenges, which have been largely overcome with only a 0.08% reduction in performance across the city’s collections between April and August this year (compared with the same five months last year).

Out of about 30,000 scheduled collections each day, more than 99% are collected to schedule.

This is a valued service and during the height of the lockdown collection crews welcomed the claps, children’s drawings and cakes they were receiving from residents whilst they continued to work in challenging circumstances. The waste sector has recently been recognised as unsung heroes by a Recycle Now campaign.

Challenges from Covid19 continue. We are bracing ourselves for the winter months and the expected impacts on staffing numbers as we make sure we all stick to the self-isolation rules and any NHS Test and Trace contact.

We have experienced a dip in collection performance as we continue to explore ways in which our staff can operate safely whilst also reducing the risk to residents. This has initially resulted in slower rounds - which is demonstrated in the performance Chart 1 below for the months of August and September. However, we have taken steps to bring in additional vehicles and staff and expect to see the situation improve further – notwithstanding any further impacts we might see from the pandemic.

The reasons are multiple and include Covid19 impacts such as supporting staff to take a well-earned break following months without leave, unplanned absences such as self-isolation, continued increased tonnages being collected and a backlog of MOTs for VOSA.

From April to August, most people were at home and limited on their activities. This resulted in a 13% increase in brown bin tonnages - almost 3,000 tonnes of waste – and a 12% increase in green bin tonnages - over 800 tonnes of recycling. Additional disposal charges alone are currently estimated at over £300,000.

fly tipping

Overall, Plymouth has witnessed an improving picture of reduced fly tip incidences and increased enforcement, when comparing 18/19 to 19/20 and into 20/21.

Recorded incidences of fly tip clearance have reduced from 19,812 in 18/19 to 10,989 19/20 and 20/21 shown in Chart 2 below.

It is worth noting that across the UK there are differences in how fly tip is recorded. We continue to prioritise responding to incidences.

Nationally, there has been a widely publicised concern about fly tipping and littering during lockdown and as lockdown eased. Chart 3 shows a notable spike in tonnages arising from fly tip clearance in April.

Chart 3 shows that customer reports of fly tipping do not always correlate with the volumes cleared. This is in part because multiple reports that can be received for a single incident and the size of incidents may vary significantly. Importantly, we proactively monitor hotspots and internal reporting mechanisms. This proactive approach is evidenced in low reporting periods.

Fly tip clearance, disposal and investigation has significant costs across a number of Council services, which divert limited resources. Disposal charges alone for the April to August volumes has been over £35,000*

*This excludes collection costs and hazardous consignment notes. Third party asbestos clearance costs are also excluded.

TRI-SERVICE - SSW has improved its approach to evidence searching and reporting for the Public Protection Service. During Covid19, a new tri-service approach emerged bringing Plymouth Highways rapid deployment CCTV capability to bear on hotspots. This has provided important evidence to investigations and it seems to also act to prevent environmental crime. Further investment is being made in this technology as part of a broader plan to deploy CCTV for events and traffic management.

2019 saw significant improvements to dealing with fly tipping with investigations resulting in fixed penalty notices more than doubling (123 in 18/19 to 320 19/20). The 2020 first quarter reporting period has shown the impacts of Covid19 and the need to divert Environmental Health resources to other activities in the pandemic. Even with that and delays in cases coming to Court, some recent examples of investigations have been featured in Plymouth Newsroom articles, demonstrating enforcement action for rogue traders and back lane litterers.